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Good morning, I'd appreciate some advice. Back in January of this year, I hired a roofer who told me the ingress of water to my attic was caused by a lack of valley between roofs (I live in a mid terrace Victorian property which is 3 storeys), that the chimney required soakers, repointing and replacement of roofs.

Months later, the roof failed. Hired a new company who inspected my roof and informed me that I needed a new roof entirely as all the battens were rotted through, the valley didn't extend to the chimney, most of the slates needed replacing and flashing was inadequate, also no soakers.

Work commenced and finished but water is still accessing my building through the roof. I've attached two pictures. The first is of the attic, the chimney is above that area. In the 2nd picture, that is the room immediately below and water is accessing the cavity wall and tracking down.

The roofer restripped that section of the roof, checked all the soakers, flashing, etc.. and could not find the source of the water ingress.

I have no idea where to go from here and any advice would be greatly appreciated. The only thing left to do is repoint that chimney - I was informed by the company that it was extremely unlikely that was the issue of vulnerability.

Hi sarsaparillasunrise
Does you neighbour the other side of the party wall also have damp patches?
Regards S

Hi Stoneyboy, thanks for replying. When I first started having issues, I asked the owner if they had signs of damp their side and they stated they hadn't. The owner doesn't live on their premises, they rent it out to tenants. I've contacted the owner on two further occasions and as yet, no response from them.

stoneyboy wrote:Hi sarsaparillasunrise
Does you neighbour the other side of the party wall also have damp patches?
Regards S

I should also say that the company I hired has unofficially walked off the job, stating they are done and are not engaging me in further discussion. The roofer they subcontracted the job to is still willing to work with me to find a resolution. The only thing left that they can see which still needs doing is repointing the chimney as the render is completely eroded between bricks in some areas.

I am at a loss as to what to do next, would it be contacting building control via my local council or privately hiring a surveyor?

Hi sarsaparillasunrise
You are in a very difficult situation - a real bag of worms.
If the wall in your photo is one face of the chimney stack then yes, re-pointing the chimney may help.
The flashing around the chimney doesn’t look too good - do you know how far the flashing at the back of the chimney was taken up under the tiles?
I assume you have paid the company in full so really your options are grin and bear it or get a surveyor in for a detailed report. The problem will be finding a surveyor who is prepared to go on the roof and perhaps strip off tiles to establish what is going on.
Your local building control department are unlikely to be interested unless you made a BC application for the re-roof.
Regards S

stoneyboy wrote:Hi sarsaparillasunrise
You are in a very difficult situation - a real bag of worms.
The flashing around the chimney doesn’t look too good - do you know how far the flashing at the back of the chimney was taken up under the tiles?
I assume you have paid the company in full so really your options are grin and bear it or get a surveyor in for a detailed report. The problem will be finding a surveyor who is prepared to go on the roof and perhaps strip off tiles to establish what is going on.
Your local building control department are unlikely to be interested unless you made a BC application for the re-roof.
Regards S

Hi Stoneyboy, thank you once again for replying, I appreciate your help. The owner of the company I hired that I interacted with informed me that he'd instructed the roofer to replace the lead and flash around the entirety of the chimney then assured me he had.

The roofer today admitted to me that the lead had not been replaced around the back of the chimney and when he removed the plasterboard from the attic, he could see that is exactly where the water seems to be getting in from. There was also a fist-sized hole to the back/top right of the chimney.

As he is thoroughly disgusted by the attitude and behaviour of the person that hired him, he has taken it upon himself to replace that section of lead, put in a channel to deflect any water and repointed the back, my side and front of my chimney. He never asked for any monies, I paid him what I felt was a fair amount to thank him for his time. He will be back on Monday to check the roof/attic to ensure that has remedied the issue.

He felt that as that back area of the chimney hadn't been releaded, water was tracking in heavily, including through the erosion of render on the chimney itself, hitting the end of the beam below and tracking right along the attic hence water affecting the rooms below.

Thankfully I had insured this job, so on Monday I'll be contacting the insurance company to inform them that the company has broken their contract with me and by doing so, acted contrary to the consumer act 2015 and see what they have to say.

I have written to Building Control at my council and hopefully I'll get a response from them early next week.

Again, many thanks for your replies, it's appreciated.

Hi sarsapirellasunrise
Many thanks for the update hope you get things resolved satisfactorily.
Regards S