Flat - downstairs saying we are causing wet carpet and something is leaking..?!?

[Chalchlo]

So..I live on first floor flat, there is one below us, we own ours but the downstairs one is rented, the landlord came up to knock to say they have a bit of a wet carpet and door frame round bathroom was wet - My partner went down to look and it was ever so slightly wet hardly anything there and door frame was dry...landlord also said he heard some dripping behind the bathroom sink tiles - these are opposite sides of the bathroom but as we live in flat the water does run down the back through the pipes and out so they are bound to hear something...anyway cut a long story short
I got the plumber round to have a look for any leaks etc and he found nothing..so I called landlord to tell him but he still reckons it's coming from ours. He said he tenants took for skirting board in bathroom. And there's dropping there .I've told him to come up and have a look himself but not really sure what else to do? I can't find anything to fix..wish there was it could be fixed and done but nothing!
Any ideas?
Sorry for long post

[PigletJohn]

how old is the building?

Are the drain pipes on the outside, or in a duct in the corner of the bathroom and/or kitchen?

Are the floors concrete?

[AuntFidgetWonkhamStrongNajork]

Their bathroom is wet? Isn't it more likely it's their bathroom leaking somehow than its coming from you?

[Chalchlo]

To be honest I'm not sure how old the building is!
Yes pipes are In corners and floor Is concrete

[Chalchlo]

This is what I thought, don't know if he's just trying to pull a fast one as when he come last time he mentioned to my partner he didn't really want to go through insurance
We have same insurance as we pay service charge which includes building insurance

[Chalchlo]

There's no dripping from the ceiling or anything all seems to be on the floors which to me says it's them but he is saying anything to make it sound like it's coming from us

[PretABoire]

Are there only two flats in the building? We had similar - leak into flat below, plumbers baffled. It was travelling from another flat on my floor which wasn't above the one affected

[Chalchlo]

No there is 6 flats in the building (3 on each side) so one above me and one below

[NoSquirrels]

If it's not coming from the ceiling or the down the walls, I don't see how it can be your flat at fault - the LL needs to sort it for his own tenants. If he can prove there's a leak from you (i.e. a plumber HE employs and pays for can demonstrate it) then fair enough. But if not then it's not your problem.

[tissuesosoft]

We’ve recently been through something similar. Water coming up from tiled flooring that was concrete underneath. 5 different leak specialists and plumbers couldn’t find the issue until they dug up the floor. It was the soul stack we shared with upstairs. They had a crack their end which caused problems ours.

[tissuesosoft]

*soil

[Chalchlo]

The problem I'm having is there is no water or wet anywhere in my flat and also when we turn taps on etc up here there is no dripping down below...we'll there's no dripping below anyway regardless of who it is this is what makes me think it could be his flat
He was saying that his friend done the bathroom and wherebits leaking there isn't a pipe there so it can't be his...but there must be a pipe there otherwise the water from the drink would have no where to go

[tissuesosoft]

Our landlord didn’t have to pay (we were in temp accommodation during repairs for two weeks)- it was covered under the building insurance as he was a leaseholder

[Chalchlo]

What's a soil stack! I'm not really clued up on all this lol

[tissuesosoft]

We had leaking from the bathroom into the hallway and then into the living room, the neighbour upstairs didn’t have any leaks though

[PigletJohn]

if it's got a concrete floor, and is fairly modern, it would be very difficult for water to appear on their floor unless from a leak in their bathroom.

If you had water falling down the plumbing duct it would tend to fall all the way down to ground level. Or if it was blocked by the fire stopping, it would trickle out from the duct where it met the floor.

[tissuesosoft]

It takes waste water from upstairs outside. The attached pics are from the bathroom and the hallway

[PigletJohn]

A soil stack means the large pipe (soil pipe) which takes waste from the WC, and has other smaller waste pipes branched into it.

Commonly there is one for the whole building, placed in the corner of the bathrooms and/or kitchens, one above the other, and boxed-in with a fire-resisting vertical duct. You will often notice this duct in the corner of bathrooms. The water supply pipe usually also goes up the same duct.

In older buildings, the pipes were cast-iron and run up the outside wall of the building.

[Chalchlo]

But did you have dripping comin down from your ceiling? As his seems to be all at floor level?

[tissuesosoft]

Bit of damp in the corner of the bath- right where the soil stack was but no leaking. It was all coming from under the floors

[tissuesosoft]

*bathroom.
It took 7/8 months for the leak to be found and damage to be sorted.

[Chalchlo]

Okay, maybe I could try looking at this. But the little bit of wet on the carpet is the opposite side to the soil stack
Such a strange thing, as I'm not clued up on all this I don't want the man to try and put it all on me when it's no actually my problem

[NoSquirrels]

He was saying that his friend done the bathroom and wherebits leaking there isn't a pipe there so it can't be his...

He just sounds cheap & as if he wants to make it someone else’s problem! His flat, he needs to diagnose the problem himself. If it turns out to be an issue with your plumbing he can demonstrate then you act. But for now you can’t see it’s your problem. I would have asked him to pay for your first plumber, tbh.

[tissuesosoft]

The leak we had travelled 4/5 metres, it was a nightmare.
Are you leasehold? Could be worth contacting the property management company

[NoSquirrels]

But OP doesn’t have to do anything- there’s no proof it’s her flat causing an issue.

LL downstairs can contact who he likes, however, as it’s his flat with the problem that needs diagnosing.

[Chalchlo]

This is what I think too..I'm happy to pay sort anything out if it is me but until then I agree I think it's for him to sort out