RAAC?

JOOI do your deeds make clear that the roof is one of the common parts or is that the result of the 2004 Act?

If every owner is responsible for a share of the cost of repairing the roof (including the RAAC) - under the deeds alone or with the 2004 Act - I don't see a need for a lawyer now. Maybe later - much later - if some turn out not to be insured and won't pay. Bu then that'd be action in jointly with other owners

Telling the insurance company a.s.a.p. is just standard practice so they can't complain later they weren't given a chance to intervene.

And of course tell the council - possibly both their factor hat and their owner hat.

And possibly also tell other private owners in the block so they can tell their insurers if the factor can't be trusted to do that promptly..

No. This is Scotland.

Owain

Exactly.

And to be honest we may be lucky if it is ONLY the roof.

Decant the occupants, lift the concrete planks, erect a steel frame and flat-to-pitch roof conversion over it, insulate and plasterboard, replace all the wiring, redecorate and clean, and I can move back in :)

If it's the intermediate floors as well, I don't see how those can be replaced.

If the council do declare the block immediately uninhabitable they've got to rehouse 50 of their tenants (families not persons) and up to another 50 private owners and tenants too, just on this street.

We may live in interesting times.

Owain

Any concrete panel, lintel, or flooring panel is liable to sudden and immediate failure without added reinforcement on the side that is being 'stretched' as a load is applied.

QED, the type of concrete is not the issue, it is how the structure meets the design loading and whether it is protected from the weather (which is an issue with flat roofs).

Jim has (had) one

But in the event of expensive repairs you will end up paying a lot more than 1/12th of the bill because you will be a cash cow to subsidise the tenants (who pay nothing).

The tenants pay nothing because it's the owner's liability - in their case the council.

But it's true that the council do nothing inexpensively.

Cheaply, often. But not inexpensively.

Anyway: structural engineer been. The roof *is* RAAC, the intermediate floors probably aren't.

Struct Engr in contact with council about what to do. I'll be phoning insurer later.

In the meantime I'm glad I didn't go wild with the chandeliers.

Owain

My neighbour works for the local authority housing dept. She had her garage flat roof replaced a few years ago and it is a semi-garage of two between two houses and separated from each by a metre wide path. The other half said he paid

I priced up the materials at 700 pounds alone, so the roofing contractor quite probably does overpriced work for the council and did this for free Labour.

Costwise or Weight ?? :-;

Well, both.

Owain

Well, I'm going to be off-group for a while. Moving to temporary accom while the roof is checked, so won't have PC access.

Best wishes all

Owain

Enjoy the time.

Why not? wifi to a mobile phone on a laptop...

FYI, I did this for a few months with a PAYG contract (cancel with 30 days notice) and tethered the phone to the TV and computer - worked very well. You'd need a decent phone signal, obviously - I had 75% 4G.

Best of luck!

Hope it goes well for you. Do keep us posted, when you are able to do so. And uk.legal.moderated is also there just in case...

Theo

I don't have a laptop (well, I've borrowed one now)

We have a Dangerous Buildings Notice in progress and are waiting for reports. No idea yet about timescale if we can go back. Moving in to a bedsit later this week. Hopefully from then I'll have my PC back and will have to sort out some mobile data.

Fortunately? only two blocks on the road have the 'experimental' RAAC roof, all the others are timber structure.

It's been a trying couple of weeks but could have been worse. No-one hurt. Just losing my sanity.

Insurers have refused to accept this is an 'insured peril' so that is another thing to negotiate.

Owain

Well, we are still waiting for (more) reports (and I am still in the bedsit).

Estimated cost of repair (complete replacement) of roof is £400k. This will still not bring the rest of the building up to current Scottish social housing energy efficiency rules so the council is almost certainly going to decide on demolition.

Insurance have said 'no' and this has gone to the ABI and the Scottish Housing Minister.

May take 6+ months to go through the council processes (and this is an accelerated procedure, would normally take 18+ months) for the council to buy us out, hopefully for more than the Compulsory Purchase value.

Then I can get allocated a 1 bed council flats on which I have to pay rent.

Obviously this does not fill me with joy and I shall at that point be taking legal advice on compensation etc. At the moment I don't think lawyers can get a faster or better resolution.

Another two blocks have also been evacuated with a further 70+ flats having RAAC and being monitored whilst remaining occupied.

Thought I'd give you an update before Google Groups disappears.

Owain

Would a few acrow props have mitigated the possibility of collapse, avoiding need to evacuate until the legal wrangling had been sorted?

An alternative

I think eternal-september is also preparing a web interface as well as nntp access.