A roof leaks, the stock below gets wet, and two parties each assume the other will pay. That is the usual shape of the question. For an owner-occupier it is easy, because the roof is theirs. For anyone else, in a rented unit, a shop in a parade or a floor in a multi-let building, the honest starting point is that responsibility depends on a document, and the document is the lease.
This post is a guide to reading that document and to the other things that matter once work begins. It is general information. It is not legal advice, and it cannot replace a solicitor reading your own lease, which is the right step whenever a dispute or a large cost is in prospect.
Two of our commercial posts divide the subject between them. This one deals with responsibility. Its partner deals with time, in our post on how long it takes to replace a commercial roof. Landlords, agents and tenants whose unit is leaking will want both, and the commercial roofing page explains how we survey commercial roofs.
The sections below work through the ownership structures one at a time, then cover the practical steps that protect everyone: evidence, access, and the roles that the regulations give to whoever commissions the work.
The lease is the first document
If you rent your premises, the lease sets out who looks after what. Roof responsibility is rarely written as a single sentence. It is spread across several clauses, and the combination decides the answer.
Clauses to look for
- The repairing obligation: who must keep the premises in repair, and whether that covers the structure, the roof and the exterior or only the inside.
- The definition of the premises: whether the lease includes the roof, the roof space, or only the area below it.
- The service charge: whether the landlord recovers roof costs from tenants, and how it is shared.
- The schedule of condition: a record of how the building looked when the lease began, if one is attached.
- Access and reinstatement: the landlord's right to enter to inspect, and who makes good afterwards.
- Insurance clauses: who insures the building and who bears any excess.
Read it as a whole
A tenant with an obligation to repair "the premises" may or may not be responsible for the roof, depending on how the premises are defined. A landlord who keeps the structure may still be able to pass the cost on through a service charge. The two clauses have to be read together, and the wording matters more than the usual assumption that "the landlord does the roof".
If the clause is missing from your copy, ask the landlord or agent for the full lease and any licence or deed of variation, and take advice before agreeing to pay anything.
Owner-occupiers and freeholders
If you own the freehold of the building and occupy all of it, the roof is yours to maintain. No lease sits between you and the weather, and any decision to repair, overclad or replace is yours alone.
What follows from that
You commission the work, you choose the contractor, you pay, and you answer for the condition of the building to your insurer, your lender and your visitors. You also hold the records. A set of dated photographs of the roof, with a note of its covering and any known defects, is worth having on file, because it helps with planning, with insurance and with a sale.
A building with a lender or a landlord above you
An owner-occupier may still have a mortgage or a head lease with its own terms, so look at the paperwork rather than assuming. If part of the building is let to tenants, the position of those tenants returns you to the lease.
Planned maintenance
Owners gain most from regular inspection, because a small defect found early is cheaper than a leak found late. Gutters, outlets, flashings and the joints in profiled sheets are the usual places to look, and a short visit each season tells you more than a long one after a failure. A written maintenance plan sets inspection dates, access arrangements and who is told. A written plan, with inspection dates, access arrangements and a named contact, is the usual way to keep that up.
If you are unsure what condition the roof is in, a survey tells you before the question turns urgent. It also gives you the facts you need if you later let part of the building, sell it or refinance it.
Landlords, tenants and multi-let buildings
When a building is let, the owner and the occupier each have a part to play, and the lease divides it between them.
Full repairing and internal repairing
Some leases make the tenant responsible for the whole of the premises, including the roof. Others keep the structure and exterior with the landlord and leave the tenant with the inside. The names used for these arrangements vary, and the clauses are what count.
One roof, several tenants
A multi-let industrial building or a parade of units often has one roof over several tenancies. Repairing it often falls to the landlord, with the cost shared through a service charge. That raises questions about who decides when work happens, how the cost is split and what notice tenants receive. A tenant who questions a charge can ask how it was worked out and request the supporting records.
Who calls the roofer
In practice the managing agent often engages the contractor for the landlord. The tenant's part is to report the problem promptly, in writing, with photographs, and to give access.
Damage inside
A leak that ruins stock or equipment raises a separate question, which is who pays for the loss. That turns on the lease, on insurance and on the facts, and it is a matter for advice. Photographs taken at the time, and a prompt written report, protect everyone's position.
For leaks in industrial units, our guide to an industrial unit roof leaking sets out the first steps.
Evidence that helps whichever side you are on
Whoever turns out to be responsible, the same evidence helps. Collecting it early costs little and settles a good many arguments.
A dated record of condition
Photographs of the roof, the gutters, the ceilings below and any stains or damp, taken with the date visible or recorded in the file details, show what the position was and when. If the lease has a schedule of condition, compare against it.
A written report of the fault
Send the landlord, tenant or agent a written note of the problem, with the photographs and the date you first noticed it. Keep a copy. An email is enough. It starts the clock on any obligation to act and shows you did not sit on the problem.
An independent survey
A roofer's survey is the strongest single piece of evidence, because it describes the cause, not just the symptom. It says whether the leak comes from a failed flashing, a split in the membrane, a broken sheet or a blocked outlet, and it says what the repair involves. That matters because the cause often decides who is responsible: a defect in the structure sits differently from damage caused by a tenant's equipment on the roof.
Keep paperwork together
Hold the survey, the photographs, the quotes, the lease extracts and the correspondence in one file. If a dispute arises, a clear paper trail makes it much shorter, and it helps a new managing agent or buyer pick up the story without starting again.
We survey, photograph and measure each commercial roof and give the findings in writing, so that every party reads the same facts.
Safety duties that follow the roof
Whoever owns the responsibility for the roof also needs to think about who may be on it, because some roofs are dangerous to walk on.
Fragile roofs
In HSE's classification an asbestos cement roof is fragile every time, so nobody should walk on one. A building owner or manager should know which parts of a roof are fragile and keep people off them. The access rules for fragile roofs are strict: no walking on the sheets, and a plan for any work above them.
Asbestos
HSE's advice for older buildings is to treat pre-2000 construction as asbestos-bearing until a test says otherwise. That affects sheets, soffits and boards. Anyone commissioning work, whether landlord, tenant or agent, should find out and pass the information to the contractor.
Access for inspection and repair
Who can authorise access, who holds the keys and which areas are restricted are practical questions that cause delay. A tenant who needs a roofer on the roof should tell the landlord or agent. A landlord who needs access to a roof through a tenant's unit should give notice. Settle the arrangements before the day.
Roof equipment
Plant, aerials, solar panels and signs fixed to a roof can affect its condition, because each fixing is a hole, a load or a bracket that someone must keep sealed. If a tenant installs equipment, check whether the lease allows it and who is responsible for any damage to the roof covering.
CDM duties for whoever commissions the work
When roof work is carried out, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply, and the party who commissions the work takes on duties as the client.
Who the client is
HSE defines a domestic client by reference to a person having building work done at home, outside any business. A commercial landlord, a business tenant or a managing agent commissioning roof work is not a domestic client,, so that definition does not apply to them.
Appointments
Regulation 5(1) names two appointments, one principal designer and one principal contractor, needed as soon as there is more than one contractor. That is easy to hit on a commercial roof, where a roofer, a scaffold firm and a crane supplier may all be engaged separately. A sole contractor falls under regulation 15(5) and prepares the construction phase plan.
Who does what in a lease situation
If the landlord commissions the work, the landlord is the client. If the lease puts the repair on the tenant, the tenant is the client. Where an agent instructs contractors, the agent acts for the client, who remains responsible. Agree this before the contractor starts, so that nobody assumes someone else has made the appointments. A short email naming the client, the contact on site and the person who will receive the construction phase plan is enough to start with.
Our guide to CDM on commercial roofing jobs goes through the roles in detail. The next step is a survey, after which one written price follows.
