Who owns the exterior walls of a block of flats?

gerryfitz

I am the chairman of our small management company, which owns the freehold of our block of six flats. Each of the 6 flat owners is a Director of the company.

We need to upgrade the current TV aerial system as the present one will not receive digital signals in some of the flats.

We are investigating the possibility of having a communal satellite dish installed on the outer wall of one of the top floor flats. This will receive all available systems, Sky, Freesat etc. (An IRS system)

One of the owners of one of the middle storey flats has stated that they will not under any circumstances allow a dish to be erected and that no cabling or wires can pass along or down the walls of their property.

Assuming that 5 of the six directors want to go ahead, and our company rules state that we abide by a majority decision, my questions are-

1. Who actually owns the outer shell of the building?
2. Can this single owner/director stop the remainder from having a suitable TV reception system?

Many thanks,

EdInvestor

gerryfitz wrote: »

I am the chairman of our small management company, which owns the freehold of our block of six flats. Each of the 6 flat owners is a Director of the company.

1. Who actually owns the outer shell of the building?

The company which owns the freehold.

2. Can this single owner/director stop the remainder from having a suitable TV reception system?

Not if the other owners agree.

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

Spot on. And I would suspect that the Management Company own the Freehold in this case.

gerryfitz

That follows what I thought would be the case.

I will try to resolve this without anyone getting upset, as it will do good in the long run for any dipsutes to develop.

Many thanks.

Richard_Webster

The company which owns the freehold.

How does the poster know? Has he looked at the leases?

OP wants an answer and the answer is to read the leases to see how the demised premises are defined.

Certainly in most cases the exterior and structure will be excluded from the demise, but this is not always the case.

I am acting for someone at the moment who is buying a converted flat in a four storey plus basement building in London where there are 5 five flats on top of each other and each owns and is responsible for their part of the structure, the basement flat for the foundations, and the third floor flat for the roof!

Richard_Webster

There is a thread with the same original post at: http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=17059
and the answers are more careful and considered.