The roof above your flat is leaking — whose call is it?

A leak above the top floor feels like your problem: the water comes in at your place. For the question of who has it repaired and who pays, that is not the decisive question.

Dutch housing advice foundation Stichting !WOON writes that the foundation, load-bearing walls and the roof are among the communal parts, and that balconies, chimneys, soil stacks and window frames often are; what is communal and what is private in a specific building is set out in the deed of division. So the roof sits in the front row — but your own deed of division is the document that says so definitively.

That shifts the question from technical to procedural. Stichting !WOON notes that many owners' associations draw up a long-term maintenance plan (MJOP) to gain insight into necessary maintenance, and describes that an association itself chooses whether to reserve 0.5% of the rebuild value annually or to save annually on the basis of that plan. If the roof appears in the plan with a year against it, the discussion at the meeting is not whether, but when and with which funds.

What you can practically do as an owner: request the maintenance plan and check which year the roof falls in, and when in doubt have the actual condition documented. A roof inspection (€ 150-350) with photographs is a stronger argument at a meeting than an impression. For buildings, roofers generally work on a contract basis (€ 60-90 per hour); a full roof replacement runs from € 5,500 to € 18,000. Every guide rate is in the price index.