Case study: getting the freeholder to fix a water leak

Stefan (not his real name) bought a flat in a new-build block in Birmingham as an investment. He works in healthcare, and buying a property felt like a sensible way to make a small bit of money on the side. He always set out to be a good landlord – and for years his tenants were happily housed in the ground floor flat he owned.

But things started to go wrong in May 2024. It was the bank holiday weekend, and he got a message from the tenants saying that the electricity was off, and water was leaking into the electrical supply.

Immediately he reported the issue to the freeholder and the building manager. The leak came from outside the flat he owned, so he had no power to fix it. He got no response. The tenants had been without power for 48 hours, and in desperation he phoned the emergency services.

When the flat was reviewed by firefighters, they said the residents had to leave immediately – the situation was dangerous enough to be a threat to life.

Stefan arranged for the tenants to be put up in an Airbnb, at a cost of £3,000, which he was eventually able to reclaim through landlord insurance.

He then spent days trying to get the freeholder and the building manager to act. “I made tens of phone calls, sent hundreds of emails,” he says. “But they were so slow to reply, and they wouldn’t take any action at all. They would just say the leak was coming from the flat above so it wasn’t their responsibility.”

After a couple of weeks, they finally were able to get a contractor out to identify the source of the leak: piping leading to a shower cubicle in the flat above. The landlord responsible for this flat agreed to fix it, the water stopped, the electrics were repaired and the tenants moved back home.

But in October 2024, the same thing happened – water once more began leaking into the flat, this time from a different source.

The building is a new build, only completed in 2019. Stefan was surprised that it was so prone to leaks, but the reality is that they can be a common problem in new builds.

The cause is often poor workmanship – membranes, seals, drainage, plastic piping which has been improperly put together. Leaky pipes can be a symptom of the quick, casual approach to building quality which has become common in recent decades.

This time, the leaks were intermittent. The electricity would drop out and then come back on.

The tenants were furious, seeing it as Stefan’s fault, and blaming him for the inaction. But once more, the situation was outside his control: the leak came from elsewhere in the building and he needed the freeholder and building manager to get a contractor out to identify the cause, and then compel whoever was responsible for that part of the building to fix it.

“Again, I was back in the cycle of tens of phone calls, hundreds of emails every week,” he says. “But they were shifting the responsibility onto landlords of the flat where the leak was coming from. They needed to bring in a contractor to isolate the source of the leak, but they wouldn’t. I was going through the internal complaints process, but I was getting nowhere.

“My tenants were obviously very unhappy. They stopped paying their rent and threatened me with legal action. It was very stressful.”

At this point, Stefan reached out to the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) for help.

“Having that advice available was essential,” he says. “I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how else I could force the building manager to do anything. You have to use specific language, and know the right processes. I’m not a lawyer, and I didn’t know what to do by myself. So it was essential that there was someone there to advise me.”

LEASE advised him to approach the Property Ombudsman, and this pressure finally forced action. His tenants had moved out in December 2024, and the flat was empty. Finally, in February 2025, the landlord appointed a contractor.

“It was only because of the threat of the ombudsman that the building manager executed the appointed contractors to localise the leak,” says Stefan. “I wouldn’t have known to do that without LEASE.”

Now, the leak is finally fixed, Stefan’s flat is dried out and he has new tenants in, who are happy and regularly paying the rent. He lost 8 months of unpaid rent in total – money which may never be recovered.

He advises others in a similar position to reach out for help. “Step number one, take landlord insurance with legal cover. Step number two, do not hesitate to search for leasehold advice,” he says. “I’m very grateful for the support LEASE gave me.”