Liability For A Damp Wall In A Leashold Flat.

[HAMMEROFTHOR]

I wonder if anyone can advise me;- I live in a ground floor leasehold flat in a block in south London. We lessees in the block naturally have to all contribute building maintenance charges and building insurance charges to the freeholder's company for the building.
My bedroom outer wall (which faces the garden of the property) is very damp and has been for some time. We think its caused by rising damp. my question is who is responsible to pay for this to be fixed? The managing agent/ freeholder and the building insurance, or me as a lessee?

[boxtops]

I would say the freeholder - it should all be laid down in your lease document, but this is part of the structure of the building, which is usually the freeholder's responsibility. It does however depend on the lease - when I was in leasehold property, the onus was divvied up - I was responsible for the first floor windows and the roof, the people below me had their windows and the drains....

[HAMMEROFTHOR]

We have mould on the inside of the wall...there's nothing visible on the outside wall,
I hasten to add.

[HAMMEROFTHOR]

Thanks a lot for your input boxtops, that was a very speedy answer! As you say its part of the structure of the building, so should be the responsibility of the freeholder.

[boxtops]

The source of the damp needs to be identified, too - leaky pipe? blocked air brick?

[EdmundD]

We have a similar situation. 6 flats in a block, we are all leaseholders but we all have an equal share in the freehold. Our principle in cases like these is where is the source of the leak? Currently one of the flats has a damp wall and we are investigating whether it is from a leak in the flat above (in which case it is that lessee who is responsible) or is it from the roof or from a blocked gutter etc in which case it is the freehold responsibility.

Generally if it's the outer shell of the building then it is a freehold matter.

[HAMMEROFTHOR]

We will of course have to identify the source of the damp Boxtops, to find out whats doing it, could be one or more of a number of things I guess!
@EdmundD;- thanks for what you said, it does seem to be an external problem on the outer shell of the building thats impacting on our internal wall, as far as we know at the moment;- and if that proves to be the case then as you have said its the responsibility of the freeholder to fix the problem.
Regards, HAMMEROFTHOR

[themas]

If it's rising damp it should be much worse close to floor level & more or less non-existent above about 1 or 1.5 metres. However, a proper assessment can only be made by a professional using the correct method - not just sticking a moisture meter into the wall.

You don't say what the room is used for. Could the problem be due to condensation from excess moisture in the air in the room? - quite common in kitchens & bathrooms, & sometimes in living rooms if ventilation is inadequate.

Who is responsible will depend on the cause, but it is almost certainly not going to be the insurance company. They would only be involved if there was subsidence of the wall causing the rising damp.