Lumbered with 10k redocration bill day before completion

Pitlanepiglet

You need to find out from the management committee when the leaseholders were notified of the intended work and confirm what method was used to tell the people you bought from. I imagine that there would have been estimates circulated prior to the vote but you need to check that they were posted to the people you bought from and not just put through their door if they didn't live there.

Pitlanepiglet

Sorry got distracted...if the management committee can tell you that the people you bought from new that the work was pending and didn't tell you when asked (the questionnaires usually ask re this stuff) then you have a case against them for misrepresentation.

You'd then need to work out whether it's worth pursuing - if you can prove for sure that they knew then you've got a good case.

Fire_Fox

samirkhair wrote: »

It was my solicitor (and a friend who is also a solicitor) who said the costs incurred would not make the claim worthwhile. Plus it would be difficult recovering the money as they are not UK citizens, but he also said there is a time limit to make a claim (might have been 3 years), if I do decide to proceed.

Thanks again for the advice.

I think your claim would be against the freeholder/ management company who would have answered all your solicitor's queries regarding planned works and withheld some information. Unless you could demonstrate the previous leaseholder lied in writing, I rather think you would not have a claim against them.

In that case you might have been able to go to a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal rather than court. You then wouldn't need legal representation just to have done plenty of research yourself, so costs would be in the region of a few hundred pounds. You would be asking the LVT to agree that the major works are not chargeable to you and your proportion of the costs to be borne by the freeholder/ management company. This is what happens if consultation procedures are not carried out according to the legislation, in that case the maximum payable is just £250!

I may be wrong, but equally you may have been given incomplete advice by solicitors who are not experienced in dealing with leasehold disputes and LVTs (a fair percentage if my experiences are anything to go by). Again, I think you have left this too long to start querying, but it would do no harm to read the LVT/ major works guides on the LEASE website, and perhaps speak to their free telephone advice line: http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/