essexlondon
New Member
Hi guys,
I need help and advise, will try to be as concise as possible, hopefully clear as well. The long story short is the following:
I bought a flat through share ownership almost 3 years ago. I had the inspection for the snagging list completed after two years and the list of outstanding defects emailed to me by the house association. So far so good. A couple of defects are still outstanding and they are still attempting to resolve. The major one is a leakage under the sliding patio door in the living room. The defect was noted in the inspection as "leakage and air draft".
The latest attempt that they did to stop the leakage was to install an upstand on the inside of the property so that the water which is coming through the door is contained between inside part of the window and this upstand which has been installed just before the threshold (between the inside part of the window and the threshold) Picture attached. The result of what i call cheap and cheeky "patch" is that the water does not get into the living room (although technically still inside the property).
Am i right to believe that this intervention is not "fit for purpose" and to a "satisfactory quality"? my rationale is that the purpose of any patio door is to prevent the water from coming into the flat and not to have the water contained by an upstand.
Beside, if the water comes in (although prevented from going to the wooden floor by the upstand) it automatically implies that drafts have not been contained.
I believe that the sliding door is not appropriate for this flat as it is exposed to heavy rain and winds and it is slightly lower than the balcony. since my flat does not have shelter from any flats above I strongly believe that there should have been a well sealed swing door.
At this stage I see as only solution and therefore my aim is to have the house association to actually replace the door with a swing door which will approximately cost around 5-6K. What would you guys advise me to do? do you think i have a case?
Which steps do you think I should take in order to have my case ready to escalate the matter? (independent inspections etc)
I am really fed up and i am actually really considering to take them to court either proper court or small claim court.
Thanks for your advise
I need help and advise, will try to be as concise as possible, hopefully clear as well. The long story short is the following:
I bought a flat through share ownership almost 3 years ago. I had the inspection for the snagging list completed after two years and the list of outstanding defects emailed to me by the house association. So far so good. A couple of defects are still outstanding and they are still attempting to resolve. The major one is a leakage under the sliding patio door in the living room. The defect was noted in the inspection as "leakage and air draft".
The latest attempt that they did to stop the leakage was to install an upstand on the inside of the property so that the water which is coming through the door is contained between inside part of the window and this upstand which has been installed just before the threshold (between the inside part of the window and the threshold) Picture attached. The result of what i call cheap and cheeky "patch" is that the water does not get into the living room (although technically still inside the property).
Am i right to believe that this intervention is not "fit for purpose" and to a "satisfactory quality"? my rationale is that the purpose of any patio door is to prevent the water from coming into the flat and not to have the water contained by an upstand.
Beside, if the water comes in (although prevented from going to the wooden floor by the upstand) it automatically implies that drafts have not been contained.
I believe that the sliding door is not appropriate for this flat as it is exposed to heavy rain and winds and it is slightly lower than the balcony. since my flat does not have shelter from any flats above I strongly believe that there should have been a well sealed swing door.
At this stage I see as only solution and therefore my aim is to have the house association to actually replace the door with a swing door which will approximately cost around 5-6K. What would you guys advise me to do? do you think i have a case?
Which steps do you think I should take in order to have my case ready to escalate the matter? (independent inspections etc)
I am really fed up and i am actually really considering to take them to court either proper court or small claim court.
Thanks for your advise