Roof gap............where do I stand

[SueP19]

Hi hope someone can help.....
A few months ago my neighbour had their roof re-roofed. We live in a semi and as their new tiles on the rear are smaller than ours the roofing company inserted a bonding gutter underneath the join at the back (the front were the same size so they were married back together)
Upon getting our Christmas tree from the loft just we found that the roofers had left a gap (daylight) all the way down the rear of our roof, its big about 1 inch wide.
I wrote to the company to see what they had to say and enclosed pictures of the gap
I received a reply today saying "there does have to a slight gap" and "this is of no detriment to the property" Then pointing out that "if there were any problems with weather tightness it would have presented itself by now"......................My roof is ice cold, so much so that the snow we had recently was not melted by heat escape (our roof is slate with no under lay and we have no loft insulation)
Hopefully someone will be able to advice me on where we go now as the wind has gotten under the roof as well and some of the tiles have moved but only slightly

................now for the killer.............the neighbour works for the roofing company and her other half is a director of the company where my husband works...................we live in the middle of nowhere and our other neighbour (two fields away) is their father who owns the company my husband works for

This is why I went straight to the roofing company trying to keep it all professional

Sue
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[^woody^]

Your pictures are too small to see, but it does not matter

Your complaint is with the neighbour, and strictly not with the roofing company. Give them say 10 days to sort the problem out, or else advise that you will arrange the work yourself at their cost, and sue in the county court if need be.

Alternatively you can advise the roofing company that you will engage a suitable professional to report on their work (ie the gap) and use this to pursue remedial work by another company and sue both them and the neighbour jointly. The suing bit will be a bit of bluff as it is really the neighbour who is responsible, but the mention of a professional opinion may motivate them

Also tell them that you will inform building control of the work - or just do that anyway - not only for the gap, but to see if they put a building notice in for the work or need for insulation

Basically there should be no gaps around roofs, and if the company says it is OK then they are incompetent fools