Shared terrace on a flat?

Stuzza

I'm currently in the process of looking at buying a flat in a block of flats, within the block of flats there is a communal terrace for everyone to use, however there is also a terrace between my flat and another flat with steps down to the garden, so others could gain access to it from the garden if they so desired.

In the deeds it is marked as a shared terrace between my flat and the other flat, however the boundary of the property is clearly limited to the flat, a private balcony and excluding the shared terrace. The lease does not convey any rights over the shared terrace, although the terrace would fall under the 'maintained property' clause of the lease.

My concern is that do I actually have any rights over the terrace at all, who owns the terrace itself (I think the freeholders, similarly to the parking, although I cannot see anything defined) could the management company reassign usage of the terrace to a communal terrace if they so desired? etc Should I expect rights of access and usage of the terrace to be written into my lease?

I have obviously raised these questions with my solicitors but was wondering if anyone here had experience of anything similar.

Thanks in advance.

S

Richard_Webster

This is the sort of detailed point that it is difficult to provide any really sensible advice without seeing the lease and possibly other documents so I think you should wait to see what your solicitor says.