Leasehold terminology and obligations for the lessee

Legacy_user

Hi Everyone,

Not sure if anyone here will be able to help me with this one, but thought it was worth a punt. I bought my leasehold flat three years ago and at the time of purchase the service charge was about £900 a year. Within three months of me moving in, the charge suddenly went up by £600 a year because they management company had been instructed to demolish the back stairs and replace them with balconies because the stairs had fallen into disrepair and were considered dangerous. This increase is supposed to go on for about 8 years in total so that the cost of the work can be salvaged from the lessees. So that's £1,800 that I've paid so far for this work, with another £3,000 due over time.

My query is this; are lessees actually obliged to pay for improvements or structural changes to the building itself? The Leasehold Advisory Service website says: "works of improvement: as a general rule, leases in the private sector do not oblige leaseholders to contribute to costs of works of improvement to the building."
http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=14

I bought a copy of the lease and have found the paragraph that refers to the external parts of the building, but it's in legal jargon and not entirely clear to me what it is saying. Does anyone know where I might stand with this or where I might be able to get some free advice on what the lease actually says?

I would really love to be able to recoup my £1,800 but can't afford expensive legal advice at present.

Many thanks for reading.

Red.

starving_artist

You can make an appointment to see a legal advisor at the Leasehold Advisory Service to go through your lease (they are in London) or talk to and advisor on the telephone. They don't charge.

Otherwise you could try posting your query on the long leasehold questions section of the landlordzone forum.