So there is a copper feed to your flat.
Do the vertical copper pipe going up and the Tee connection that goes back into your floor supply only your flat ?. If the meter is outside then I assume yes.
Is there a residents association who could meet and discuss the issue then approach the owners with a proposal. In this case I guess the owners a are never going to win unless there is an agreement with the people in the flats. Brian
the fact that any pipe goes through a number of floors (how many?) raises the question of fire stopping. A kitchen fire on the ground floor could travel up this void and affect other people.
How come only one patchwork pipe travels through your flat ?. how many floors are there and how do the other floors get their cold water supply ?.
isn't the 'management' company just you and all the other flat owners ?.
Who is the "Landlord"? Is it the Management Company - or the entity that owns the freehold - of which you are probably a shareholder if it's jointly owned?
You presumably have a Lease? That should define exactly what each flat owner ("tenant") and what the Landlord is responsible for.
I have a holiday flat which works in that way. The Landlord is a limited company jointly owned by all the tenants. We don't employ an external management company - we whack up the jobs amongst us - I look after the finances and another flat owner looks after the maintenance. Provided you're nor all gaga, it's the best way to do it.
3 floors. I'm sure you're right that it could be a fire hazard.
I'm in the middle between the ground floor and the top floor. So, it's one motley run of plastic pipework through my flat to the top floor flat.
The management company is employed by all the flat owners to do management company stuff. So there's a diverse range of responsibilities, one being that the management company is responsible for the services.
Flat owners share the freehold.
Yes, the "Landlord" is responsible for the services.
Yes, there have been various methods employed in the past. The current management company have only been active here for two years. This is after freelance activity engendered much psychological bloodshed, I'm told. As far as the gaga level is concerned I can only speak for myself by saying that I'm well on the way.
The copperwork starts as it comes through my floor and the whole of my supply is then in copper. Not quite sure what happens beneath but at leasst some of it is recently leaking plastic.
There will be an Annual General Meeting some short while after Coronavirus recedes. As I understand the process from historical records there will be a pillory and some gentle witch burning.
The last plumber who came around said that as the pipes flexed during changes in pressure and on and off use, the joints worked loose. This is made worse by bits of disimmilar pipe being connected together. Also that the pipework is just hanging there, instead of being held firmly in place by various possible means.
That reminds me of a conversation I had during a job I did in a 13 story hotel in Durban, South Africa...
..The building manager said that the sewage from all floors fed a common single massive plugged together riser...but unfortunately it had no expansion joints, and in the hot Durban sun, the building expanded several inches whilst the riser, in the air conditioned interior spaces, did not...sewage spills were routine
Shit! That would be the final straw.
Look closely the upper (black pipe) compression joint still has a turn or so to go before the flanges meet. Presumably these ones are tight and don't fail. The lower (blue pipe) looks to be as tight as it can go as the flanges are together, this probably means that the pipe isn't fully held and these joints fail.
It might be possible to find the correct sized sealing/gripping insert/olive for that fitting and pipe size. Simply replacing those so the joint can be tightend before the flanges meet may well cure the problem.
Different sized pipes shouldn't be a problem provided the fitting is correctly sized for the pipe.
Even providing support for the weight of the pipe work may reduce the frequency of failure. The joints may not be perfect but until the pull out or get close to pulling out don't leak?
Every little helps on the road to good enough.
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