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Water Damage from a Flat Roof

Article posted on 17 December 2015

We recently had a call from a broker asking us to look at a potential claim for one of their clients. The insured had found water under the floor of a first floor flat above a hardware store in Hitchin. About 10 years ago the owners of the shop had built 6 new flats above and behind the shop.

The Cause of the Problem

When we arrived at the property the tenant told us that there had been a leak from a waste pipe under the kitchen sink which had recently been fixed. Under the floor there was a void of about 1m deep. In this void was approximately 12 inches of water and it soon became apparent that this water was not from the faulty waste pipe.

What We Did

The first thing to be done was to re house the tenant. This was achieved within about 2 weeks with the assistance of a local letting agent.

On further investigation by our Trace and Access team we discovered that the water was coming from the flat roof above. There was a gulley on the roof which fed into a downpipe running down through the flat, eventually ending up in a surface water drain below ground. This pipe was leaking just above where it entered the first floor.

After fixing the leak about 80% of the solid wood floor covering and the chipboard was removed and the water was pumped out. Drying equipment was then installed for approximately 4 weeks before reinstating all the floors and redecorating the flat.

Surprisingly only a very small amount of water found its way through into the shop below. This area was repaired by patch plastering the damaged ceiling and then redecorating.

The Outcome

As a company we pride ourselves on good project management. In that respect this job was quite complex as we had deal with and try to keep happy a number of interested parties, including the insured, the broker, the tenant, the shop staff so that they could keep trading, the letting agent and the managing agent. The broker was very satisfied with the outcome and also pleased to be able to keep a valuable client for the future.

From the date of our call out it was about 3 months before the tenant was able to move back in.