Neighbours property leaking into my property - what can I do?

[RoseWrites]

I'm sure this is not the right place to put this, but it is vaguely legal.

I own a flat in London, I lived it in it for a while and then I let it out and it's been a BTL for about a decade. It's a ground floor in a terrace. The flat above (the original upstairs of the house) has had leaks which have permeated my/the downstairs flat kitchen ceiling about 3 times a year. It is both annoying and damaging

The owner of the upstairs flat lives in it and she is a nightmare neighbour. Abusive and rude, and drags her heels over doing anything about the leak.

Understandably, the tenants are annoyed. They are paying London rent for a substandard experience. And there is seemingly nothing I can do apart from engage in a back and forth with the owner of the flat to rectify the issue.

The tenants now want a rent reduction.

What can I do? Can I sue her?! Take legal action to make her solve it once and for all (easier said than done)? Make her pay my tenants compensation? Or something else?

After 15 years of having her as a neightbour, I'm out of steam....

Thanks in advance!

Who is the freeholder?

Followed a woman on socials who’s next door neighbours bathroom was leaking and caused massive damp issues - they said there was no issue their side, refused all attempts of resolution, has basically had to take them to court. If you have landlord insurance does it include legal cover? Worth a shot!

Take her to court.

Take legal advise

The Freeholder may also have to get involved

Do you own a share of the freehold or just the leasehold?

If just the leasehold then you need to notify the freeholder or managing agent straight away.

There are likely covenants contained in your lease in respect of repairs and maintenance provisions that have to be carried out by the leaseholders and freeholder. There is also mutual enforceability of the covenants meaning they can be enforced by either party. In other words, you can enforce this on the owner of the other flat.

There are also likely covenants in regard of peaceful use and enjoyment of the premises which cannot be breached.

You need to write to the freeholder and say that there has been a leak which has affected your property without sufficient resolution. You should refer the landlord to the terms of the lease and request they intervene and fix the problem or it is a breach of the lease term which can be enforced.

My bath developed a leak which damaged the flat below. I obviously paid to resolve the leak but the damage was rectified under the block insurance. Is that an option?

Can the freeholder get involved?

I have the same issue. Leak from upstairs btl flat into our btl flat. Ex council, so the council is the freeholder.
The last leak took about 1 year to sort. All it was was that their shower screen was badly sealed. they insisted for months that there was no problem. We paid for our plumber to have a look.
They still didn't do anything.
I escalated it to the council as the owner above was in breach of the leasehold. Council sent a surveyor who said the same thing as our plumber.
The upstairs owner sent a sealant tape to their tenants and told them to fit it themselves.
It took a couple of more months to dry out.
we are now waiting for the builders to replaster and redecorate. The insurance is paying most but we will be about £750 out of pocket.
the upstairs neighbour will have paid about £10 for the sealant tape.
it’s all very frustrating.
and I’m sure it will happen again.
our last tenants moved out because of it. When we showed it to new tenants we were obviously open about the problem - i mean everybody could see it! - but we also explained what we had done so far and we kept them updated on all the steps. We haven’t reduced the rent, but we could have probably increased the rent if there hadn’t been the problem.
i totally understand you running out of steam.
i look at it as it’s part of the business and I should try not to get emotional about it.
we considered taking the upstairs neighbours to the small claims court as they had originally suggested that our plumber should look at the leak and they would pay for it. Then they refused. So we paid the plumber as he is great and has been our plumber for about 15 years.
unfortunately i got diagnosed with cancer in the middle of it all and am in the middle of chemo and am cautious with how I spend my energy and time.
so we decided to drop the small claims court.
we have considered selling the flat because of these consistent leaks (we have owned it for about 10 years and had about 8 leaks!), but we’d lose quite a bit of money.
So we’re sticking with it for the time being.
Good luck!

Well yes there's something you can do. Claim on the buildings insurance