Money retained for building maintenance on freehold

poddle911

Hello all,

Just after some advice, please:

We bought a property in April 2008 - a ground floor flat in a converted house with three other flats (all owned by the same person) - and we own 1/4 of the freehold.

As part of the negotiations, the previous owners [STRIKE]gave us[/STRIKE] put in £1000 towards some maintenance (est. £2000) due to be carried out in August 2008, but the work still hasn't been done and (despite regular contact) we're waiting for confirmation as to when it might happen.

I understand that the money is with the solicitor (rather than 3/4 owner of freehold), but I need to double check this.

So, my questions are:

1) Are they required to give a notice period before the work takes place? We need time to get the rest of the money together - I'm glad that we haven't had it set aside for all this time.

2) Most of the costs relate to scaffolding costs - we are on the lower ground floor and don't require it, is this just tough nuts?

3) And most importantly... can we claim some sort of statutory interest on the money from whoever has been holding it?

Any advice gratefully received! Thanks

princeofpounds

Try lease-advice.org and the related service - it's government backed advice on such things, although they are best at general rather than specific advice.

Landlordzone's long leasehold forum can also help you.

It may be the money is being held in a sinking fund for works at an indeterminate date rather than for a specific project, even though one is evisaged.

Which floor you are on will not matter.

poddle911

That's interesting, thanks for that, I'll check it out!