If you lived in a ground floor flat, would you expect to help towards cost for loft insulation?

[missrose]

We live on the first and second floors of a converted house. There is one flat on the ground floor. We both own our flats although we currently hold the freehold for the whole building. We own the roof space but the roof is a shared responsibility.

We need to get the roof insulated. The roof is slate and will need replacing in the next five years or so, but in the meantime we wanted to get the insulation done.

As it will benefit the flat downstairs, is it reasonable to expect them to help pay with the costs?

It will benefit you considerably more.

We were compelled to pay for structural work to the front wall of our house, despite the fact none of our flat went across the front.

We had no choice, but it did piss us off. We got no benefit from it at all.

It will depend on what their lease says about structural work.

No, as you said you own the roof space.

No way

No. In what way will it benefit them?

Up to what it says in the lease really. I think it would also depend on what kind of insulation it is fixed to the joists or underside of tiles/roof
Gut feeling says external roof fabric & structure repairs are shared but loft insulation your responsibility as part of your ceiling / loft construction which is your space

No I wouldn't. It's not a structural issue and it wouldn't make my flat any warmer

Not unreasonable to ask them to contribute to re-slating the roof, but v unreasonable to ask them to contribute to insulation.

Ok, thanks for the responses. I thought it would benefit their flat as well but the consensus here is that it wouldn't. I also thought if it was of value to the building as a whole we could ask them to contribute but it would of value only to the upstairs flat?

It's not massively expensive anyway. When we moved in we had to pay towards a bay window roof they wanted repairing so we thought this was also applicable in sharing of the cost.

Bay window roof is part of the main building fabric.... If the work isn't done it will affect the building integrity not just their bit (water leaks through, rots joists , your floor falls in and your living room ends up in theirs) whereas although insulation is essential to you it doesn't affect them as their flat is effectively 'insulated' by yours.

It depends what the lease says

I don't know about insulation.
If you need to get the roof fixed then they bear a share of the cost, if it says so in your lease.
Insulation could arguably be cosmetic. It doesn't benefit the flat downstairs: can you explain why it does?

What does the lease say?

If the inside of the roof belongs to you then I would expect you to be responsible for its upkeep - which woudl include insulation. But it depends on what the lease says.

Agree iwth the others, they share the cost of replacing the roof but the insulation cost you need to bear.

OP said

" We both own our flats although we currently hold the freehold for the whole building. "

So the ground floor occupier is your tenant?

Not sure how you can each "own" your flats yet you "own" the building's freehold? Are you in Scotland?

If you own the freehold then I would guess you are responsible or all repairs to the structure of the building

But obviously depends on what lease says

Depends on what the paperwork says. Normally the roof is a shared responsibility, but this is a nice to have rather than a repair, so don't think they can be asked to pay.