Urgent advice needed
vintage_girl
Posts: 3,573 Forum Member
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Hi all, could anyone please advise me what to do, my roof is leaking very badly in 5 places, I've put buckets down but they overflow every 30 mins, it's a private landlord and he isn't picking up his phone...if it's left like this the floor will flood overnight and I'm worried about electric devices etc. Who do I call at this time? My flatmate is out and I'm in on my own.
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Or you could put out an SOS on Facebook.
Or if you can get to the roof you could temporarily patch it, B&Q may be open near you but you'd have to hurry.
I don't have any advice sadly. Do you have enough money to have someone out if the landlord doesn't pick up? If so, I would do that and invoice him the bill. Actually, who am I kidding? I'd call my Mum. lol
Friday night out of hours callout charge will be quite hefty I would have thought + a temp repair. Over a hundred quid I reckon.
Have these problems been evident before? 5 leaks springing up simultaneously out of nowhere seems a bit unlikely.
Good luck
I'd be amazed if they came out for this. Sadly and I know this isn't a good answer, but I'd be emptying buckets until I got hold of the landlord.
Really good luck with this though, hope it has a happy ending.
Get an independent witness when you try to contact the landlord. You could also contact the council for advice, because all properties have to be registered: www.gov.uk/renting-out-a-property/landlord-responsibilities
This is from Ireland, but I'm sure similar principles apply:
http://www.nihe.gov.uk/index/advice/renting_privately/advice_landlords/standards_of_fitness.htm
More advice here: uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100225065720AA5Msz8
I did do an internet search first (that's how I know about the charging bit) and some do
Get some goodies and a few films and make a fun night of it.
Hope the rain stops soon. The river has burst ( I think) where my niece is and she is trying to stop her home flooding
Take all portable belongings and put them into one dry room.
Use your phone to video buckets filling.
Tonight/tomorrow sleep at friends, small hotel, keep all receipts, keep trying to contact LL send texts.
Next week start looking for new accommodation unless LL starts putting things right immediately.
Send receipts to LL.
If you are putting buckets out and they are filling that quick, those are serious leaks, LL might be able to patch, sounds like a new roof to me.
Find new accommodation, get you deposit back.
Its likely to be a slipped tile or maybe a blocked gutter. If you can get onto the roof you could possibly fix yourself, though dont take any risks!
Yes this started 2 months ago, at first it was just 1 leak and it was just small drops of water. We told the landlord but he's done nothing and it's gradually got worse. Today is the worst, have never seen the likes of it. It's eased up now thankfully but earlier it was steams of water, like a tap. I'm worried that we'll get flooded if it rains heavily overnight though.
Thanks for the links, will look into it.
No, there is actually another flat above me, I've just been up and they don't have any water on, plus their flat is completely dry. There is a bit of roof directly above my window which is exposed to the rain, that's the only thing I can think of. But I really have no idea about any of this stuff. I've called a number of roofers and they're baffled too, it's difficult to know without them seeing it. They can't come out til tomorrow morning anyway, and I'm really weary of calling them out without checking with my landlord. But he's out of the country and never picks up calls. We just keep emailing him and he fobs us off. I only came to this city 9 weeks ago and while I've made new friends, I don't feel comfortable asking them if I can stay with them as I don't know them that well yet. So I have nowhere to go
Oh no, that sounds worse than my situation...hope she is Ok! The people I the flat above gave me some buckets thankfully. It's manaegable now but I'm shattered after a busy week and will fall asleep...
That sounds more likely if the flat above is dry. I hope you get it sorted out soon
Its getting late - if it were me I'd gather all my electrical equipement up and place it off the floor then bugger off to a travelodge for the night - let the land lord sort it when he makes an appearance.
As I started reading through from the top I guessed that would be the case.
Glad its gonna get sorted.