URGENT HELP PLEASE! Roof repairs on terrace house - who pays?

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Hello, hoping for some advice on repairs to our shared roof and who should pay.

Some background: we own our terraced house, and our joining neighbours rent. Their landlady is very elderly and difficult to communicate with. Therefore communications usually go through the tenants (who are very nice!) but I'm not really comfortable with this arrangement. The guy also works in the building trade, so when previous roof repairs were needed we provided quotes and she just wanted him to do the work. We declined as again I'm not comfortable with this, and ended up funding the work ourselves.

Now to the issue: We have done a lot of work on our roof recently. We have been happy to pay as it appeared to only affect our side. However now we need to make more repairs to the upper roof join - the ridge is curved which apparently is very old fashioned and not made anymore, so the repairs will essentially be modernising the roof join, and I feel they should contribute. However, they say they are having no issues, so where do we stand on this?

I have a roofer coming finally this week and don't want to delay anymore - we really, really just need this work done now. We have water running down the wall every time it rains, it's been going on for too long.

I would like to just arrange the works and ask her to contribute afterwards, what would you do and does anyone know where we stand in terms of who should pay? Our joint fence has also collapsed, I despair!!

Thank you in advance

The title deeds will make it clear who is responsible for parts of the property that you share with next door, including the roof and fence. It could be that you're liable, that owner is liable, or you're jointly liable. What do yours say?

If its any of the scenarios where the landlady is responsible then I am not sure how you can force her to contribute- realistically if she is not living in the property and the people who are saying they are having no issues then you are going to be unlikely to get anything from her. Particularly as she has previously suggested a solution that you weren't interested in - not clear why you weren't comfortable with someone from the building trade fixing the issue just because they live in the house (if i have understood that part of the story correctly?)

I sympathise with you, but I have been a tenant before with a landlord who doesn't care and it's hard enough getting them to shell out for work when it's something that actually impacts the person living inside the house, never mind shelling out to improve the life of someone who doesn't.

It's perhaps unfair but if you need the work done I'd just pay out of my own pocket. In a similar scenario- I share a joint fence with my neighbour, the deeds say we're jointly liable, but even though it's falling down he does not wish to pay because it's not a priority for him. I want a new fence so I am footing the entire bill, even though technically he should contribute.

I would also argue that if you want to have final say in who does the work then you should foot the bill. If the landlady were to contribute, she would rightly have a say, and may suggest the person you didn't want again. It could be worth paying just to get the work done to the standard and timeline you want.

Hi @sweetpickle2 thanks so much for the reply.
I didn't realise the deeds would have this info, I will check them this evening.
RE the tenant doing the work—he is not a roofer by trade, and I have no idea what his work is like. We are hoping to move soon, and I would prefer to have a guarantee/receipt of works from a local/recommended roofer for potential buyers. I also think it could make things awkward if there are further issues with the roof or the work isn't good, for example. I would just rather keep that side of things separate!
My gut feeling is like you say, that we may just have to foot the bill, but it's good to hear someone else say it! Thank you

Given your update, if you are hoping to move soon I would just foot the bill. You get the work done in a timely manner to the standard and with the guarantee you want, and don't risk opening up a can of worms of disputes with your neighbours- which (depending on the nature of them) you would have to disclose when you sold and could make things awkward in a different way.

I didn't realise the deeds would have this info

It's far from unusual for neither the deeds nor the title plan to have no information about boundaries or roof maintenance obligations unfortunately, particularly where the properties concerned are older.

I mispoke when I said the deeds- I am not talking about the documents you download from the land registry but certainly my legal documentation from my solicitor when I bought my house this year explains who is responsible for maintenance of the shared fence and other common parts of the property. I am assuming OP has the same from when they bought their property, but perhaps they do not.

@Mildura ah thank you, we are in a very old terrace, good to know it's not unusual for them to be missing, but I will have a look just in case

If you want to sell I would just foot the bill. It doesn’t sound like you’re going to get any money out of the landlady or that she’ll be open to you using your choice of roofer so I’d just get on with it.

I think you might mean the TA6 form, otherwise known as the 'Sellers Property Information Form' that has a section on which boundaries the property is responsible for, and is filled out by the vendor during a property sale.

Thanks all. Just out of interest, what would people do if we weren't planning to move? I'm sure the ridge would eventually need replacing anyway, as it's so old. So although it is only affecting our side at the moment, we are doing work that benefits both sides.

I find the situation with the landlady really frustrating, she doesn't have an email or a letting agent, so everything goes through the tenants and it just adds this extra layer of hassle to everything. I also feel bad asking them to get in touch with her all the time. She will then always want them to do the work, which has no guarantee and I feel muddies the waters even more. So is it just a case of finding a compromise over a tradesman, or going to court until one is found? I'm not suggesting we would go down that route but just wondering what the process would be if we were in a normal situation.

Honestly I'd still just swallow the cost. It's not fair, but the only way you can force someone to pay is through legal intervention which would probably cost you more.

In the case of me and my neighbour and our fence- I know he has less disposable income than I do, even if he disagree to contribute he'd want a far less expensive/worse quality fence. I am telling myself that at least if I'm footing the bill I get to choose what we have.

Thanks @sweetpickle2 I think we are going to foot the bill and ask her if she is willing to contribute as it is benefiting us both. If not, we will just suck it up.

Do you have a picture of the roof/ridge and how come it is shared?

I'm struggling to imagine how the ridge would be shared as well.

Yes!
Also have a diagram - you're looking at the back of the house. We don't have this ridge on the front of the house, only on the upper roof at the back

It is very old-fashioned apparently and they don't use these on roofs anymore so it isn't really worth repairing (although we have asked). So we would be replacing this with a more modern solution. Unfortunately, we are the only ones having a leak at the moment, but I feel we would be modernising both roofs by replacing this.

OK, I understand now. We had a similar issue a few years ago, my terrace had a leak caused by the parapet walls on the roof needing repointing. It wasn't affecting my neighbours so I just paid for it to be honest.

Thanks @Mewthree that's good to know. It takes so long to get quotes and get feedback from neighbours, then finding a good roofer who can fit us in - not to mention getting to the bottom of the problem - I just want it done now, to be honest! No harm in asking I suppose but we're prepared to just take the hit on it now I think!

Their roof looks like it has been upgraded more recently than yours. I would also suspect that your wFer issues are due to the flashingbaround the himney. It would be pssible to make repairs to your roof without replacing the rudge tiles but when they are removed, there is a risk they break before they are replaced. I would also guess that they had to putbthese in when they replaced their roof. I would be having more conversations with your roofer to better understand the situation or asking for a second opinion. Curved ridge tiles are still used between roofs in terraced houses where there are no walls. I think in this case.. the cost is yours to bear.

Thanks @ChateauMargaux two roofers have suggested to replace the curved ridge, but we have had so many different opinions ranging from replacing tiles to getting a whole new roof, it's hard to know what to do. Would you suggest asking to replace the flashing first to see if this works? We have made a lot of small repairs but they all add up, so keen to hopefully get it rectified once and for all.
It is worse when it rains, water runs down the wall from the join.

It would.depend on how soon you plan to sell, th cost of replacement versus how much it would impact the sale. Water ingress is urgent. In theory, repojmting the ridge tiles and checking the flashing should solve the leak

Where is the leak? The ridge tiles are there because when the neighbour went for a new roof, they went for cheaper pan tiles which obviously cannot be married to your roof. Those ridge tiles will break, so may as well cost to replace them all. I think the cost is all on you.
That’s a weird roof, the angles do not make sense.

It would.depend on how soon you plan to sell, th cost of replacement versus how much it would impact the sale. Water ingress is urgent. In theory, repojmting the ridge tiles and checking the flashing could well solve the leak

Their landlady is very elderly and difficult to communicate with. Therefore communications usually go through the tenants

she just wanted him to do the work.

I find the situation with the landlady really frustrating, she doesn't have an email or a letting agent, so everything goes through the tenants

She will then always want them to do the work,

If you can't communicate with the landlady then are you really sure she wants the tenants to do the work or are they pretending she does? Personally I would pay for it myself based on speed, convenience, having total control of the process etc. I would also try the flashing/chimney first as it's weird if you are having trouble and they aren't based on your photo.

My husband is a roofer and he says you need a bonding gutter, and probably cost ball park £8/900 including a scaffold

Seems cheap. Your husband is correct though, the more modern solution is the bonding gutter. This will no doubt come up in a survey so it might well be worth the OP going for new lead flashing on the chimney and the bonding gutter and be done with it.