I bought a Shared Ownership new build in 2013, and moved in in August 2013. We have two balconies on either side of our flat. By September 2013, we realised there was a leak on one of the balconies. Essentially the balcony on the flat above us fills with water, and rather than that water draining off, it leaks through every crevice, rivet, gap in their balcony, onto our balcony. It's quite a spacious balcony, but basically for 2/3 days after it rains it becomes unusable while you wait for the leaks to stop.
It took almost a year for the Housing Association / Building company to acknowledge that we'd reported the issue, and since June 2014 we've had 5 or 6 attempts to fix the leak, but it remains far from resolved.
The building company are clearly becoming frustrated with being unable to fix it, and have tried explaining it away by telling us it's caused by the neighbours upstairs watering their plants, or that we should expect some rain to enter our the balcony when it rains. It's also extremely frustrating, as we have two balconies - so one will be bone dry, and the other will be filling with water - clearly there is a design fault somewhere, and those responsible don't know how to fix it.
My question is, at what point are they in their right to step away, and say this is normal balcony behaviour? I'm sure balconies are a grey area, and I completely understand that we can't expect them to remain completely dry, but my feeling at the moment is that there is still an issue that needs to be resolved. As this doesn't effect my internal dwellings, are they able to leave it as it is?
Your advice is much appreciated.
It took almost a year for the Housing Association / Building company to acknowledge that we'd reported the issue, and since June 2014 we've had 5 or 6 attempts to fix the leak, but it remains far from resolved.
The building company are clearly becoming frustrated with being unable to fix it, and have tried explaining it away by telling us it's caused by the neighbours upstairs watering their plants, or that we should expect some rain to enter our the balcony when it rains. It's also extremely frustrating, as we have two balconies - so one will be bone dry, and the other will be filling with water - clearly there is a design fault somewhere, and those responsible don't know how to fix it.
My question is, at what point are they in their right to step away, and say this is normal balcony behaviour? I'm sure balconies are a grey area, and I completely understand that we can't expect them to remain completely dry, but my feeling at the moment is that there is still an issue that needs to be resolved. As this doesn't effect my internal dwellings, are they able to leave it as it is?
Your advice is much appreciated.