who pays for the roof?

[sippysoppy]

Hi, we live in a converted Victorian house of 5 flats, leasehold with a head lease. we have just had section 20 notice for external refurbishment works and have also been told the roof is in a such bad state it needs a full replacement £20,000 ,cost 20% each flat. only the top floor(who also happen to be directors of the head lease) has access to the roof which is dipped and we all feel they will get more benefit from the repair, eg value to their flat.
our lease states routine works are to be covered 20% each flat but any major excess works costs should be apportioned by the surveyor. we feel its been presented to us as a "done deal" -is it worth appealing?

Do they have a roof terrace or some actual use of the roof? If not of course you should all pay! It's in everyone's interest the building is secure and watertight.

Leaks can cause problems with wiring? Insulation and damp for you all

they have the only access to the roof, all I know is its termed as "dipped" so don't know if they can use it as a roof terrace

Standard for it to be shared between the flats, unless there's a weird set up. What's a dipped roof?

its like a v shape I think-the reason I'm asking is nobody gets along in this block, the ground and first floors are already saying they are not paying and the top floor have caused loads of problems in the past when they refurbished their flat. so nobody trusts each other and I'm trying to establish facts!

Sounds like a London roof. We had one on a previous flat and all leaseholders were equally responsible for its up keep along with walls and foundations, etc.

Of course everyone should share the cost!

The people on the ground and first floors are twats. I bet they'd expect everyone to fork, out for, say, a failed dampproof course.

I lived on the ground floor of a 4x4 storey block. Had the roof needed replacing whilst I was living there I would have expected to pay my 1/16th share.

Summed up by SoupDragon very well.
Do the people on the ground and first floor really not see the value of a roof on their property. Total twats, everyone pays.

thanks all, I think we have been a bit brainwashed by the others not wanting to pay... and we have no experience of this. also interestingly we are thinking that the biggest moaners are the ones that own several London flats each which they rent so they must be very well versed in this (and far wealthier than us so they can afford it!!!)

Read the lease, it should be quite clear who pays what. And yes standard for all flats to pay for roof repairs. Also standard for all flats to pay for damp proofing - I'd imagine the ground floor occupiers would quite happily take the top floors contribution to that despite the fact that ground floor only would benefit.