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Leasehold

Water is entering your flat from the flat above and an RTM company manages the block. Who does the survey say must open the upstairs bathroom?

The survey does not say who must open the upstairs bathroom. Water is entering your flat from the flat above, and an RTM company manages the block, but those are two facts the inspection does not join into an order. The survey can record the entry of water on your side. It has not entered the flat above, has not seen that bathroom, and has not decided that the RTM company, the upstairs owner or the landlord must open it. GOV.UK describes an RTM company as taking on management of a qualifying block of flats. Management is not a key the survey can turn.

Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.

What is the fuller explanation?

A stain on your ceiling tells you water arrived. It does not identify the pipe, the tray or the floor upstairs, and it does not name the person who can unlock that door. Right to manage moves management functions from the landlord to the RTM company for qualifying buildings. It does not, by itself, make the company the only party who can or must enter someone else's bathroom. The lease, the demise and the company's actual duties sit in the papers.

Ask the solicitor who, under the lease and the RTM arrangements, can require access upstairs, and keep that separate from the damp note. Tell the managing company what the survey saw in your flat, without adding a command the report never made. A plumber still needs access. The survey has not appointed the plumber and has not chosen the person who must open the door. Do not tell a lender the leak has been traced to a fitting nobody saw.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • What did you actually see of the water entry on this flat's side?
  • Did you inspect the upstairs bathroom at all?
  • Are you naming anyone who must open that bathroom?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Read the survey as a note of water entering your flat, not as an access order.
  2. Ask the solicitor who can require the upstairs bathroom to be opened.
  3. Tell the RTM company what was seen without inventing a duty the report did not state.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

If the RTM company manages the block, must it already have opened the bathroom?

No. Management of the block is not proof the upstairs bathroom was opened, and the survey does not say it must be. GOV.UK describes what an RTM company takes on. It does not turn this inspection into an instruction to enter the flat above.

Can the survey trace the leak to a particular fitting upstairs?

No. The water was seen entering your flat. The bathroom above was not opened, so no fitting there was identified. The report has not named a shower, a bath or a pipe it did not see. Access upstairs is still a management question, not a finding.

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