Help needed with unfair treatment

oldone_2

You should also be asking questions about the management company. Who appointed them ?, who do the represent ? Do you pay them maintenance charges for the up keep of communal areas. Is this property self managed as opposed to a management company being appointed.

Depending on the answers, you have a right to see accounts and minutes, and if self managed, elect directors. As has already been stated, your starting point is your lease.

Ausberg

moromir wrote: »

In response to all the people advising you to refuse to allow any inspection, do note that most head leases will make provision for the Freeholder/its appointed Directors or their representatives to have a right of access to the property in order to assess potential breach of lease issues, access to pipework/wiring serving other flats/communal areas etc all that kind of thing so you really need to check that out.

ETA: As a side note - you haven't inadvertantly built over any access points to pipework/wiring etc that may serve other flats?

Thanks, yes had imagined a refusal of entry would not be ideal, as much as we want to tell them to just go away, it would cause further harassment for us.

I can confirm that none of our alterations affect any other flats, is a straightforward mezzanine floor within our flat that we have just made larger.

Just as another question I'm pondering, is owning the freehold not beneficial in arguments such as this, as opposed to if it was still a leasehold property?

Ausberg

oldone wrote: »

You should also be asking questions about the management company. Who appointed them ?, who do the represent ? Do you pay them maintenance charges for the up keep of communal areas. Is this property self managed as opposed to a management company being appointed.

Depending on the answers, you have a right to see accounts and minutes, and if self managed, elect directors. As has already been stated, your starting point is your lease.

Thanks for your advice, we will get hold of the lease and find out where we stand regards to the changes we've made. The management company are residents, self elected so in effect they appointed themselves. They represent all residents, who pay 130 per month for upkeep.

Good point, we have not had any accounts for a long time, which I believe they seem to spend money where they see fit, i.e repairs to their own flats while ignoring others...

How we go about un-electing the current directors is something that would be interesting if we decide we can put up with living here. I've read about right to manage which may be the course of action to take if we were thinking along these lines.