Water leak between flats

Maintenance

I own two flats in a block of 40. I am one of the voluntary directors of the block. The flats are distributed in ten buildings each of four floors.

We have had a big increase in insurance premium and increase in the insurance excess for water claims. This was due to a combination of a number of small claims, plus one big claim where four flats were directly affected from an undetected leak in the top flat. It is likely that in addition to increased management fees for leaseholders there might also be a problem for the saleability of individual flats because of this water/insurance problem.

I am beginning to investigate ways in which we might try to reduce the risk of leaks occurring or affecting multiple flats. It is a difficult issue and it will probably prove to be prohibitively expensive to achieve very much.

I would welcome any useful suggestions about possible methods of prevention/risk reduction.