Flat above is leaking into mine and he's trying to sell

Posted by steve99 (218 days ago)

Hi

The flat above mine is leaking in the bathroom and the landlord hasn't fixed it.

Now I just found he's trying to sell the property, no doubt without fixing it, or paying for the damage.

Any advice on how to get him to fix it and pay for damage before disappearing? The government "Building's Department" and "Food and Environmental Health Department" joint office has been notified of the leak, but they are soo slow!

Thanks for any advice!
Steve

Find what you are after in our Hong Kong A-Z Directory

Posted by walkup (218 days ago)

You should file a case in the small claims court: http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_services/pphlt/html/sc.htm
but before you do this you need to produce correspondence:
1. asserting that damage has been caused and that you have notified the owner of the flat above.
2. an estimate of costs (you should get a written quote from a builder)
3. that you have given the landlord opportunity to fix/pay for fixing the problem
(photos of the damage are also useful as evidence).
.....If the owner of the above apartment sells the property then you can put both his and the new owner names on the claim and let the court assign responsibility for payment.
But......before you do all the above do try at least once to contact the owner to explain the problem..he may be prepared to pay for the problem without the legal hassle.

Posted by steve99 (218 days ago)

Many many thanks,
great info!

Posted by Lily and Johnny (218 days ago)

Dear Walkup and all

my case is a bit different.
my family is the landlord of the floor above.
fesus and urine are leaking from the ceiling.
It had been 3 weeks since we had tried our very best to contact the tenant
that we need to repair the toilet in their flat.
The plumber (who had been doing biz in our area over 13years) had ensured us
that it would only take 3 hours to fix the toilet.

They refused to let us in.

Even when the officer from management estate called them up.
They said, let us give them a demand letter (by lawyer)' they just would not let us to do the repair job.

Their reason:

1) they had an 80+yrs old auntie who just came in town and has been staying with them.
They could not allow any nuisance; no repairwork could be allowed

2) They had just received a one month's notice to terminate the tenancy
( as it's already the end of the 12th month of the lease.) they said they were entitled to right of peace until the end of 13th month.
They scolded my parents, saying that 'we are playing dirty games, trying to get back the flat as the market is high a.s.a.p. . they said we are using that as an excuse to enter in the house and created nuisance, so they would be forced to leave earlier

I could not understand these aliens.

We just do not want any fesus and urine coming down from the ceiling.

3) my parents, in their 60s, could not sleep well at night as there is noise and 'drizzling' sound .
We know perfectly whenever the 80yrs old auntie living above flushed her toilet.

mom once fell on the floor after climbing up to change the bags/containers that hold those sh*ts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My dad send a warning letter to them, through a lawyer who was obviously not an expert in conveyancing.

The tenants replied with a long letter, unless and until there is professional report to demonstrate that there is urgent need to repair the thing, they would not allow any repairwork.

They advised us not to use OUR bathroom.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To make the story short, I knew that finally under the witness of the estate mgmt officer, my father had a brief meeting with this cold blood man and his wife.

the man had been impolite and he humiliated my dad from the begining to the end of the meeting

Dad offered to book hotel room for his 80yr+ old auntie to have quiet place to stay during the repairwork.

This man said' This offer is not attractive enough'

Dad later offered a one month's rental. they finally said yes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I checked from this website

http://www.eaa.org.hk/publications/pub_hk_domestic_tenancy3.htm

it deliberately says that landlord should have the right to visit the flat with potential new tenants/buyers in the last 3 months of the lease,

and it deliberately says that tenant should allow landlord to observe/check the repair job whenever it is reasonable to do so.

If there is any professional here, pls help..... I don't want my dad to be ripped off by these ppl..

and i know this couple would be renting apartment in our area....i am worrying about the new landlord...it seems that there is nothing i could do.......to warn the next candidate who turns to be their landlord...

BTW, our family aimed to terminate the lease becuz the flat is turning old and some major renovation must be done to prevent further damage. How could a conscionable man allow his tenants to live in a broke n flat?

Yet, you just seldom meet kind tenants here in hk...

I am upset

lily

Posted by walkup (217 days ago)

Lily...a very distressing experience but your absolute priority now is to get the tenants out with the minimum of fuss. You are fortunate that as landlords you are in the position of terminating the contract with an accepted one month offer. If necessary move your parents into a hotel while the notice is being served. Once the tenants are out just be happy they are gone.

Posted by Lily and Johnny (216 days ago)

Thank you walkup.... very distressing indeed. You are so right that at least the tenants agree to leave in the end. cannot imagine what other tricks they would try on us if they are staying any longer

i had always believed that most of the ppl are good ppl.
I am now finally convinced, that THIS is not true. Plus you could avoid assume how ppl are like only by looking at their appearance and manner.

When it comes to money/ tenancy /any agreement, one should always protect himself... One should not be shy to add reasonable clauses. (Things would be much easier if the tenancy agreement had been done by a professional....no one should use the tenancy agreement template bought from the streets...)

These tenants claim themselves protestants/christians, holding a company selling health supplements (i.e. lingzhi, ester C....).
They looked very very very well mannered, so my family were willing to give him more than 5% discount than normal market price to rent them the flat.


<Obviously we chose the wrong candidates.
we just realized that their company is quite similar to DCH (multi level marketing,) Very skillful in ripping off money from others...

Anyway, thank you for your kind response...