Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hello all,
I am a leaseholder and am currently occupying the flat myself with my family.
The flat below ours got some minor damage due to leakage originating from my flat.

The Landlord/management company are unfriendly and their workers failed to spot the issue months ago which caused the problem to escalate and eventually caused damage in my own flat as well. Since then I have paid to get both the source of the leak and the my own flat's avoidable damage fixed.

However, landlord is insisting that I pay for the damages to the flat below as well. Worst, since the leaseholder below has let out the flat I am only able communicate with the agent and not the owner himself.

The workers recommended by the agents are quoting roughly 3x the price I have been quoted from trusted providers I have used and even shared links to their MyBuilder and CheckATrade profiles.

Last they have said this:
our Landlord is more inclined for the works to be completed using a contractor via our management services as they will have gone through a vetting process and are reputable.

What are my options here? Can I force them to share the leaseholders contact details? Am I even obligated to pay anything for damage which also was caused due to poor diagnostic work from the managing agents workers?

I have uploaded the clause of the lease (on Imgur) which they are quoting to claim the costs.
https://imgur.com/a/2kyChQr

There is a buildings insurance but excess is a huge £500 and the bills are lower than that, so it's useless to try that.

AIUI the buildings insurance policy (arranged by the freeholder) will not cover this, It is down to your contents policy.

The agents said the building insurance would cover but it's useless cause of the crazy high £500 excess.. even the 3x inflated bills are lower than £500.

My question is if the cost is enforceable based on lease? And can they force me to pay the 3x cost in the name of "reputable" and "vetted" contractors? I have strong suspicions that they are getting kickbacks which are the reason for such a high quote. The leaseholder downstairs is uncontactable which makes it trickier for me.

Difficult for anyone to answer without seeing your lease…

I have uploaded the "clause" they quoted for their claim. Sharing Imgur link again
https://imgur.com/a/lease-clause-2kyChQr

Appreciate any help

so was this leak due to your negligence?

what exactly, was leaking??

My own email detailing that it was their negligence:




Manager's Email, ingoring my email:


The report she is referring to:


Now I am in touch with the lettings team who are more friendly and seem to be receptive to "amicable" solution.

Snippet from their first email:
I will ensure to pass on the quote that we receive in the meantime for the rectification of the damage, and should there be no agreement on this, I am happy to pass on the below information to the Landlord to see how they wish to proceed.

Snippet from last email:
Our contractor has attended and quoted the following:

Fill and sand down and redecorate the ceiling for a sum of £320 + VAT = £384.

Please do kindly let me know your thoughts once you have had a chance to review this, our Landlord is more inclined for the works to be completed using a contractor via our management services as they will have gone through a vetting process and are reputable.

Please do kindly let me know your thoughts in light of this and how you wish to proceed?

------

Please note that my trusted contractors quoted £125 for the same job. Even in the past, I have seen crazy high quotes from workers hired by these agents and they really don't have leaseholders' budget or interests in mind at all and maybe getting kickbacks.

Regarding the details from my lease, it's a 102 page document, out of which they have quoted the clause I shared earlier, there are no definitions of negligence in the lease. Can someone advise how I can share parts or whole of it safely if it's relevant for advise?

they are trying to say you have some kind of repairing lease?? very unusual in private letting I would have thought.

No, as much as I understand, they are saying that the damage to the flat below mine, happened due to negligence on my part of not adequately maintaining my Shower Base Seals.

So as per their reading of the lease I am 100% liable to "make good" the damage. For this they are insisting to use their "vetted" and "reputable" workers and asking me to pay the bills.

My questions to the forum are two:
1) Am I even liable for this legally?
2) Irrespective of the above answer, can they really force me to use their expensive vendor for no good reasons?

I am happy to share my 102 page lease (I have ran OCR on the PDF so it is a searchable PDF), please advise how. I am not even sure if is it a "confidential" document, please advise if I shouldn't share.
Also, they have only quoted the clause which I already shared while claiming the cost, does that mean that rest of the lease isn't applicable? any specific parts I can or should share here?

You can keep the full lease in a google drive, and share the link here. Just hide the address, and your name. Make sure its' set to public, else it wont work for us.

Quote from: mickR on July 27, 2024, 03:47:06 pm

they are trying to say you have some kind of repairing lease?? very unusual in private letting I would have thought.

can they really force me to use their expensive vendor

I am thinking to reply telling them to contact my recommended vendors OR pay for the difference between two quotes?
I don't think they intend to litigate and I also don't want to stretch this.

any ideas/suggestions?