Some years ago I bought a flat which some years previously had been converted from a shop into two residential dwellings. The other flat was bought by my neighbour at about the same time. We have just discovered that waste from my bathroom passes through his property via a concealed manhole on the ground floor. Do we have any legal redress against the builder?
If your flat is above your neighbour’s this will not necessarily be an unusual situation, but it should be addressed in your leases. Check that they allow services to run through the other’s property, and that they contain mutual repairing obligations. Whoever carried out the conveyancing work when you bought the flats should have reported these specific terms to you. It’s unlikely that you would have a claim against the builders since you didn’t buy the property from them.