Leak from flat above

[Hamish]

Hi, I rent my flat in a tenament in Edinburgh. An agency that lets the flat above (a top floor flat) is proving slow in terms of checking out a leak through a light fitting in my flat. Does anyone have experience of this? I'm assuming if the leak comes from above, which I don't see where else it could come from, their insurance will sort it. Their response so far has been "Let's see if it happens again".

Right now, they seem reluctant to say whether or not they've checked their pipes and under the floorboards, despite their tenant telling my tenant he has had pipe issues. I can get my plumber to check behind the light fitting but it really needs to be checked from above.

They did get a plumber report but he looked in their attic and got on the roof but doesn't seem to have checked under the floor. He did report a collection of pipes ion the roof wth no cover. See attached pics. Does anyone know what these are? Water can obviously get into these pipes when it rains if left uncovered. He replaced the cover. I assume this should be the council that addresses any roof issue and the letting agency that got the report should probably report this box with no cover to the Council.

Thanks for any advice or experiences with similar.

[buzzard1994]

A water leak near electricity is not a fire hazard; it is an electric shock hazard.

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I am not a qualified electrician - but it is my belief that it is both. If you are lucky there is a circuit breaker that will blow quickly, if the wiring is old or someone has replaced a fuse with one that is too high or you have any other dodgy wiring you'll get a lot of heat. Either way I would regard this as a serious problem and not safe to wait and see if it happens again.

Therefore I would get on to the insurers of the flat above pointing out that while liability for a leak might be capable of dispute liability for death after you have been informed of a problem is not. The insurers of the flat above may wish to bring pressure to bear to have it sorted.

[nukecad]

The thiness of those pipes says vent ducts to me.

Either kitchen or bathroom extractor fans?
Maybe even just 'passive' ventilation (of a space without a fan?)
Maybe even tumble dryer vents?

Whatever they should be covered, but they should not in any way be responsible for letting (rain?)water into your light fitting.

[leaseholder64]

A water leak near electricity is not a fire hazard; it is an electric shock hazard.

There is a special forum for Scottish questions.

Their insurance is unlikely to cover the leak itself. If this only happened once, it is unlikely that you have a claim against the flat above. If there is damage to your flat, you should use your insurers, or self insure. Your insurers will claim against the other flat if they believe there is a valid case of negligence.

Failing to do the investigation you want may make a claim possible it there is a recurrence, but is not something you can insist on.

[buzzard1994]

A water leak around electricity is a fire hazard and a threat to life. If you know their insurer get onto them, if you know their landlord, or can get the information from their tenant get onto them and tell them the agent is negligent.

Pipes like that could be anything, e,.g. from gas boilers or extraction fans,old chimneys even. You say no cover then that he put the cover back.