Neighbours roof leaking into our property

[Bucks]

We have converted our old garage into habitable rooms, the neighbours garage is joining onto ours, both with flat roofs.

There flat roof is in such disrepair parts of there chipboard deck are pretty much falling into there garage, with all the bad weather we have been having recently there garage is flooding & water coming through into our property.

The owners of the house moved out of the property about two years ago and are renting the property out.

We have been in touch with the owners and there agent about a month ago, the agent says he has forwarded some quotes to the owners, but they are not getting back to him or us.

So the big question is where do we stand legally?
Surely they cant just let there property rot away & take ours with it.

I know we will probably have to go & see a solicitor, but thought I would try here first.

 

[Blagard]

This is pretty much what it is all about - Duty of Care
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_of_care_in_English_law

Unless you have actually suffered a loss then I would be careful about throwing money at Solicitors to help you.

It is a pain and if you are getting flooding, this amounts to a nuisance as well. I suggest you search "nuisance neighbours" for further information on what you may be able to do, including trying your local council's web site.

 

[big-all]

is the water comming through at roof level or ground level

does your converson comply with building reg did you get planning permision [if required]
the point i am making is dont draw attention if you dont need to

could you maybe lay a tarpaulen with some timber underneath to direct water away from the dammaged area untill things get sorted

 

[Bucks]

Thanks for the info Guys,

The owner has eventually got round to emailing us this morning, saying that they have instructed a roofer to carry out the work, luckily it is the same roofer that is converting our roof to a warm deck roof next week, I was thinking I was going to have to be postponing our roof until the neighbours was sorted, but now it looks like with a bit of look it might all be sorted next week.