Kitchen Ceiling Leaking Water

[smith-waterman 0]

Hi Renotalk Forummers,

I'm new here and seeking advice on a water leakage problem that I'm facing. My wife and I recently purchased a 2 bedrm apartment. Before purchasing, we noticed that there was a round discoloured patch on the kitchen's false ceiling directly above the sink area. After moving in, we noticed that in the morning a tiny brownish puddle of water will form directly below the discoloured ceiling area. I decided to further investigate the cause of this patch. Removing a panel on the false ceiling revealed a water pipe running along the length of the kitchen ceiling, and the area of the pipe directly above my sink was in fact leaking.

I'd just like to ask a few questions regarding this:

1. Who is responsible for this water pipe leakage? Is it me, the condo management, or is it my neighbour upstairs?

2. If my neighbour is responsible, what is the procedure to go about resolving this? eg.

i. Do I have to inform a URA inspector to come and verify that the leak is in fact caused by my neighbour?

ii. Do I have to engage a lawyer to assist me?

3. Whether I have to fix it myself or not, may I ask if anyone has any recommendations for good trustworthy contractors/plumbers to fix the leakage and my ceiling?

As you can tell, I'm a first time home owner and quite unfamiliar to all this, and I appreciate any help I can get.

Thanks for reading up to here and thanks for your help in advance!

[leechaorui 2]

Check with your condo management and probably get a recommended plumber to rectify the leakage problem.

[hiong 0]

http://www.amcis.org.sg/Strata-Mngt-Clinic-A.php

check out the section on Interfloor Seepage, I believe all your answers are in there.

[flashock 0]

Get the condo mgmt to look into this. By the way, you should have clarify this before you brought it.

The cost will be either share between you and your neighbor or you will bear the majority.

[godloveyou 0]

I'd just like to ask a few questions regarding this:

1. Who is responsible for this water pipe leakage? Is it me, the condo management, or is it my neighbour upstairs?

2. If my neighbour is responsible, what is the procedure to go about resolving this? eg.

i. Do I have to inform a URA inspector to come and verify that the leak is in fact caused by my neighbour?

ii. Do I have to engage a lawyer to assist me?

3. Whether I have to fix it myself or not, may I ask if anyone has any recommendations for good trustworthy contractors/plumbers to fix the leakage and my ceiling?

Thanks for reading up to here and thanks for your help in advance!

For stata-titled property, one has to understand the concept of "common property". MC will be responsible for "common property" only.

If the leaked pipe, hide on top of false ceiling is your, obviously you would have to foot the bill, not only cost of repair/replace pipe, but also replace false ceiling.

[smith-waterman 0]

Hi all, thanks so much for your replies on this matter.

leechaorui and flashock, I've asked the condo mgmt about this and they said that they've never encountered an issue like this. They also do not have any plumbers to recommend to me. seems like they don't know what to do. I hope they're not hiding anything. flashock, I did bring this up to the previous owner, but being inexperienced, I never knew this was a water seepage issue.

Thanks hiong and godloveyou for the additional information. The link was very informative.

Thanks Chanel26 for the link to 24 hr plumbing. This will come in handy.

However, I'm still a little confused with respect to my particular case. The leaking pipe is not actually embedded in my kitchen's real ceiling. It is fully exposed. When I removed a panel of the false ceiling, I could see it. The pipe itself is made of PVC and roughly 10cm in diameter. It begins/protrudes from my real ceiling directly below the upper unit's kitchen sink, and runs along the length of my ceiling. I'm 90% sure it is the pipe for the upper unit's kitchen sink drainage system. Also, there are no wet/discoloured patches on my real ceiling and it is completely dry to the touch.

So for this case, who is responsible for the fixing the pipe? is it my neighbour since its part of his drainage system? or is it me since it is actually below my ceiling?

If anyone has any advise, pls share it with me as I'm completely new on this.

Thanks again in advance for the replies

[matrix0405 0]

Get the condo mgmt to look into this. By the way, you should have clarify this before you brought it.

The cost will be either share between you and your neighbor or you will bear the majority.

If the upstair pipe is leaking onto u, then u can 'nego' with him to split the bill for the repair.

If it is your pipe leaking, and purchase is recent, then u can 'nego' with the seller to split the bill.

But if bill is like a couple of hundreds, then likely handle it yourself.