A leaking roof is bad enough. A leaking roof that the managing agent has known about for three months, while the stain on your ceiling steadily gets larger, is something else entirely.
For many leaseholders, this is one of the most frustrating features of owning a flat. You may be paying substantial service charges, yet when the building actually needs attention there seems to be an endless exchange of emails, contractor visits and promises to “look into it”. Sometimes nothing happens at all.
If your freeholder is not carrying out repairs, the first question is whether the lease makes the landlord responsible for them. If it does, a failure to act can amount to a breach of the lease. But what you should do next depends on what needs repairing, what the lease says, who has the legal obligation and how serious the problem has become.
Over the years, I have learned that it often helps to turn an apparently chaotic problem into a simple chronology. Who is responsible? When were they first told? What needs repairing? What has deteriorated because nothing was done? Those questions can transform a frustrating stream of unanswered emails into a much clearer legal problem.
This guide explains the position for residential leaseholders in England and Wales.
Quick answer: What can you do if your freeholder will not carry out repairs?
Start with the lease. In a block of flats, the landlord or freeholder will commonly be responsible for the structure, roof, exterior, common parts and shared installations, while the leaseholder is responsible for much of the inside of their own flat. The precise division varies from lease to lease.
If the repair is the landlord’s responsibility, report it clearly in writing and keep evidence. The landlord must usually be aware of the problem and have a reasonable opportunity to investigate and act. What is reasonable depends on the urgency: an active leak or dangerous staircase requires a very different response from worn communal decoration.
If the problem continues, you can escalate your complaint and consider the appropriate remedy. That might involve a managing-agent complaints scheme, a service-charge challenge, local-authority involvement where there is a serious hazard, changing how the building is managed or, ultimately, court proceedings to enforce the repairing obligation and claim compensation where loss has been caused.
What you should not normally do is simply stop paying your service charge because the repair has not been carried out. That can create a separate problem under the lease.
Contents
- Who is responsible for repairs in a leasehold flat?
- Is the freeholder or managing agent responsible?
- How should you report a repair?
- How long does a freeholder have to carry out repairs?
- What if the roof is leaking into your flat?
- What if there is no money for the repair?
- Can you stop paying the service charge?
- Can you arrange the repair yourself?
- What if years of neglect have made the problem worse?
- How can you escalate the problem?
- Can you force the freeholder to carry out repairs?
- What if poor repairs are part of wider bad management?
- What should you do if repairs are being ignored?
- Frequently asked questions
Who is responsible for repairs in a leasehold flat?
The lease is the starting point. It should divide repairing and maintenance responsibilities between the parties and usually explains how the landlord can recover the cost of work from leaseholders.
In many blocks, the landlord is responsible for maintaining and repairing the roof, external walls, foundations, communal hallways and staircases, lifts and pipes or other installations serving more than one flat. A leaseholder will commonly be responsible for internal surfaces, fixtures and fittings and services used only by their flat.
But “commonly” is important. Leases vary, sometimes in surprisingly detailed ways. Windows are a good example: one lease may make them entirely the leaseholder’s responsibility, while another divides responsibility between the frame, glass and external decoration.
The government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service has useful guidance on repairs and maintenance in leasehold properties. My broader leasehold property guide explains how these responsibilities fit into leasehold ownership generally.
Do not assume responsibility simply from where the damage appears. Water coming through your bedroom ceiling may be damaging the inside of your flat, but the underlying defect could be a roof that the landlord has covenanted to repair.
Is the freeholder or managing agent responsible?
This distinction causes a surprising amount of confusion.
A professional managing agent usually deals with the building on somebody else’s behalf. It may collect service charges, instruct contractors and deal with day-to-day repair reports, but the legal obligation to maintain the building may remain with the landlord, freeholder or management company named in the lease.
The managing agent may also need authority from its client before committing substantial expenditure. Equally, a landlord cannot necessarily escape its own repairing obligation simply because its agent has dealt with the matter badly.
Check the lease to identify who undertakes the relevant covenant. Where there is uncertainty, I would normally send important correspondence to both the managing agent and the party legally responsible for the repair. There is little advantage in allowing weeks to pass while they refer you back and forth to each other.
How should you report a repair?
Put it in writing, even if you have already telephoned.
Describe the defect, where it is, when you first noticed it and why it needs attention. Attach clear photographs or video where useful. If water is entering the property, explain whether the leak is continuing and what is being damaged. If there is an immediate safety concern, say so plainly.
Then ask for something specific: an inspection, an emergency attendance or confirmation of the proposed repair and timetable.
A long email describing months of frustration is entirely understandable but can sometimes be less effective than a short chronology: problem reported on 3 June; contractor inspected on 10 June; further leak on 24 June; photographs attached; no repair yet arranged.
That record may become important later if there is an argument about when the landlord became aware of the defect and whether there was a reasonable opportunity to deal with it.
How long does a freeholder have to carry out repairs?
There is no universal rule giving every freeholder 7, 14 or 28 days to complete a repair.
Check the lease first. It may contain wording relevant to timing, although many leases simply require particular parts of the building to be repaired or maintained.
Otherwise, what amounts to a reasonable response depends heavily on the circumstances. An active water leak, dangerous electrical installation or structural problem may require urgent investigation and temporary measures. Repainting a hallway plainly allows more time.
The scale of the work matters too. Replacing a roof may require a survey, specification, quotations, access arrangements, funding and consultation with leaseholders. That can legitimately take time. But there is an important difference between a repair moving through necessary stages and a problem simply sitting unanswered.
If proceedings eventually become necessary, the courts expect the landlord to have been told about the problem and given an appropriate opportunity to respond. There are separate official pre-action procedures for housing conditions claims in England and housing disrepair claims in Wales.
What if the roof is leaking into your flat?
This is probably the classic leasehold repair dispute.
The roof of a block will commonly fall within the landlord’s repairing obligations. If it does, tell the landlord and managing agent promptly and ask for the source of the water to be investigated rather than simply repairing the decoration inside your flat.
A damp patch does not necessarily reveal where water is entering the building. Rain can travel through the structure before appearing some distance from the original defect, so professional investigation may be required.
The buildings insurer should also be notified where appropriate. Insurance and repairing responsibility are separate questions: a policy may cover some resulting damage without determining who was legally responsible for allowing the defect to arise.
If the water appears to be coming from another flat rather than the roof or structure, my guide to water leaking from a neighbouring property explains the additional questions that arise.
What if there is no money for the repair?
A landlord or managing agent may say that an essential repair cannot proceed because the reserve fund is empty or some leaseholders have not paid their service charges.
That can be a genuine practical difficulty, but it is not necessarily a complete legal answer.
Whether the landlord remains in breach depends on the repairing covenant and the lease as a whole. It may be able to demand further service charges, use an authorised reserve fund or pursue leaseholders who are in arrears. What it cannot normally do is simply charge the compliant leaseholders a larger share than their leases require because somebody else has failed to pay.
Substantial work can also trigger the statutory Section 20 consultation procedure. Where qualifying works will cost any one leaseholder more than £250, consultation will normally be required before the full amount can be recovered, although the tribunal can grant dispensation in appropriate circumstances.
If the proposed repair has turned into a substantial project, my guide to Section 20 notices, leaseholder consultation rights and challenging major works costs explains what the consultation process involves, what to do when a notice arrives and when the eventual bill can be challenged.
Can you stop paying the service charge if repairs are not done?
Usually, that is a risky response.
Your obligation to pay a properly demanded service charge and the landlord’s obligation to repair may both arise from the lease, but one breach does not automatically cancel the other. Deliberately withholding money as leverage can leave you in arrears and potentially expose you to interest, administration charges, debt proceedings and legal costs.
That does not mean every service-charge demand must be accepted. Leaseholders can challenge charges that are not authorised by the lease or are otherwise not properly payable, and variable charges are subject to statutory controls concerning reasonableness and the standard of work or services.
If you dispute a charge, paying it under protest and then challenging it will usually be safer than simply refusing to pay. Payment does not necessarily mean that you accept that the charge was reasonable or properly payable.
My guide to challenging leasehold service charges explains the options.
Can you arrange the repair yourself and recover the cost?
Sometimes—but this is an area where I would be particularly wary of enthusiastic DIY legal advice.
The Leasehold Advisory Service recognises a limited form of “self-help” where a landlord has failed to carry out a repair. However, it specifically warns against using this route where the problem involves the structure or a common part of the building, or where carrying out the work would require the landlord’s consent.
In other words, do not assume that paying a roofer to carry out work to the freeholder’s roof automatically gives you the right to deduct the bill from your next service charge.
Where self-help is available, the sensible procedure includes notifying the landlord, giving a reasonable opportunity to act, obtaining several estimates, giving a final warning and keeping the eventual cost reasonable. Crucially, the lease must also be checked for wording preventing deduction or set-off.
The Leasehold Advisory Service explains the procedure in its guidance on what to do when a landlord does not carry out a repair.
For substantial work to the structure or common parts, obtain advice before taking matters into your own hands.
What if years of neglect have made the problem worse?
This is particularly frustrating. A gutter that might once have needed a modest repair is ignored; water penetrates the building for several years; eventually timber, plaster and brickwork all require attention—and the leaseholders receive a much larger bill.
Historic neglect can be relevant when the resulting service charge is challenged. The important question is not simply whether the landlord managed the building badly, but whether the delay has caused the expenditure now being demanded from leaseholders to be higher than it would otherwise have been.
Evidence matters enormously. Old photographs, survey reports, meeting minutes and emails repeatedly reporting the same defect can help establish both the history and the landlord’s knowledge.
I have always found chronology particularly useful in disputes of this kind. “They neglected the building for years” is an assertion. A record showing that the defective gutter was reported in 2022, again in 2023 and again after water penetration in 2024 gives that assertion something much more solid to stand on.
How can you escalate the problem?
If ordinary repair reports have achieved nothing, move from repeatedly chasing to formally escalating.
Use the complaints procedure
Where a managing agent is involved, use its formal complaints process. Set out the problem, when it was first reported, what has happened since and what outcome you want.
In England, organisations carrying out qualifying residential property-management work on another person’s instructions must generally belong to a government-approved redress scheme. A leaseholder may be able to complain to the relevant scheme about matters such as poor communication, unreasonable delay or inadequate service.
In Wales, membership of a redress scheme is voluntary for leasehold property-management work, although an agent may nevertheless belong to one.
There is an important limitation. A redress scheme can investigate the conduct of a member agent, but it cannot itself arrange a repair or decide something that only the freeholder can do. The Leasehold Advisory Service explains this distinction in its guide to redress schemes for complaints about property managers.
Contact the council where there is a serious hazard
A local authority is not a general enforcement service for every breach of a lease. However, where disrepair creates a significant health or safety hazard, its housing or environmental health team may have powers to investigate and, in appropriate cases, require remedial action.
This can be relevant to matters such as serious damp and mould, dangerous structural defects, electrical hazards or other conditions affecting health and safety.
The Government’s Housing Health and Safety Rating System guidance explains the framework used to assess housing hazards.
Can you force the freeholder to carry out repairs?
Potentially, yes.
If the landlord has undertaken a repairing obligation in the lease and is in breach of it, a leaseholder may ultimately ask the county court for an order requiring the landlord to carry out the work. This is commonly referred to as an order for specific performance.
The court can also award damages where the breach has caused compensable loss—for example, damage to the flat or, depending on the circumstances, other financial loss caused by the unresolved disrepair.
But court proceedings should rarely be the first response to an unanswered repair request. The landlord should ordinarily have been told about the defect, given an appropriate opportunity to deal with it and sent the information required by the applicable pre-action procedure.
Where the cause, extent or necessary repair is disputed, evidence from a building surveyor may be required.
The Leasehold Advisory Service confirms that court proceedings can be used to seek both an order requiring the landlord to carry out the repair and damages for resulting loss.
What if poor repairs are part of wider bad management?
Sometimes the leaking roof is not really an isolated problem. It is one item on a much longer list: neglected common parts, unexplained service charges, poor insurance arrangements, repeated contractor failures and nobody taking responsibility.
At that point, the better question may be whether the leaseholders need greater control over how the building is managed.
Qualifying leaseholders may be able to acquire the Right to Manage. Importantly, this is a no-fault right: the leaseholders do not have to prove bad management simply to exercise it.
Where there is evidence of serious management failure, another possibility is asking the appropriate tribunal to appoint an independent manager under section 24 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. My guide to the appointment of a manager under section 24 explains when that remedy may be available.
These routes do not make the cost of maintaining the building disappear. What they can change is who controls the management decisions.
What should you do if repairs are being ignored?
Step 1: Check the lease
Identify the part of the building affected, the relevant repairing covenant and the party responsible for complying with it.
Step 2: Report the defect clearly in writing
Describe the problem, attach photographs or other evidence and explain why it is urgent if that is not obvious.
Step 3: Ask for a plan and timetable
Do not settle indefinitely for “we are looking into it”. Ask whether an inspection is being arranged, what happens next and when you should expect an update.
Step 4: Keep a chronology
Record reports, replies, inspections, contractor visits and further deterioration. Preserve photographs, survey reports and invoices. Notify the insurer where relevant.
Step 5: Escalate the complaint
Use the formal complaints procedure and, where appropriate, consider redress or local-authority involvement.
Step 6: Match the remedy to the problem
A service-charge challenge, court claim, Right to Manage application and appointment of a manager all do different things. The most forceful-sounding remedy is not necessarily the most useful one.
Frequently asked questions
Is the freeholder normally responsible for repairing the roof?
Usually in a block of flats, but the lease must be checked. It will commonly make the landlord responsible for the structure and roof and permit the cost to be recovered from leaseholders through the service charge.
Who pays for damage inside my flat caused by a leaking roof?
That depends on the lease, the cause of the leak, the buildings insurance and whether the landlord has breached its repairing obligation. Responsibility for fixing the roof does not automatically decide who ultimately bears every item of consequential damage.
What if the freeholder has disappeared?
That creates different problems from an identifiable freeholder who simply refuses to act. Depending on the circumstances, court or tribunal procedures may help leaseholders overcome difficulties caused by a genuinely missing landlord. See my guide to dealing with an absent or missing freeholder.
Does owning a share of the freehold change the repairing obligations?
Not necessarily. The leases continue to exist. Where a residents’ company owns the freehold, that company may have repairing obligations under the leases just as an outside freeholder would. Owning a share in the company does not make those contractual arrangements disappear.
What if the problem is with a new-build flat?
Check the lease, but also check any new-build warranty and the developer’s defects procedure. Some construction defects may fall within warranty or developer arrangements rather than being dealt with solely as an ordinary leasehold repair.
Turn an ignored repair into a documented problem
There is a point in many repair disputes when the most exhausting part is no longer the defect itself but the feeling that nobody is taking ownership of it. The managing agent says it is waiting for the freeholder. The freeholder says there is no money. A contractor has looked at it twice. Meanwhile, the damp patch gets larger.
That is when clarity matters most.
Go back to the lease. Identify the repairing obligation. Record when the responsible party learned about the problem. Ask for a clear plan and timetable. Preserve evidence of deterioration and cost. If the response remains inadequate, escalate in a way that matches the actual problem.
The aim is not to turn every maintenance issue into litigation. Most buildings need cooperation more than confrontation. But leasehold ownership does not require you simply to accept indefinite neglect where somebody else has undertaken a legal obligation to maintain the building.
Last legally reviewed: 16 August 2026
This article is based on general principles of English and Welsh law, is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice or establish a professional relationship.
