Freeholder forcing costs of cosmetic renovations on us

starlite_2

I am wondering where we stand on this.
The freeholder of our building is planning to repoint the front of the building, paint the woodwork and windows and renovate his shop front.

He has informed us we will be billed for a third of the costs, which is something we cannot afford to do, especially as it is for purely cosmetic reasons.

I have told him we are not able or willing to contibute and would prefer the work to not be done, but he is going ahead anyway.

Do we have any choice in this matter? Thanks.

missk_ensington

This is standard and your third ratio is one of the terms of your lease I assume, which you should have known about when purchasing the property. Count yourself lucky you dont have to contribute a third for a new roof which my Mum has had to. Painting in regarded as neccessary maintenance and if your refuse to pay he can take you to court, and he will win because you bought the property under the terms of that lease (contract). Basically you've already signed a document agreeing you'll pay a third.

There are however, rules about what the Freeholder can charge for. Beautfiying his own property isn't one of them, and he has to produce 3 local quotes and prove he has found the cheapest. I would seek further advice about whether renovating his shop window is something you should contribute towards, as I'm not sure.

My Mum is constantly in court against Freeholders who get a friend to do work and bump up the cost, making a little earner themselves.

espresso

Re-pointing and painting of the wood work is not purely cosmetic, it is good maintenance to keep the building sound. I doubt if you do have any choice but it should be covered in your lease agreement.

starlite_2

It's slightly more complicated as he bought the freehold around a year after we bought the property (5 years ago) , and we have never signed a new agreement with him and he has not given us a copy of the new lease and its terms.
He says that the shop front should be included as it imrpves the overall aspect of our building, which is very true, but will benefit his business much more than it will us.
We simply cannot afford to pay what he has quoted and he refuses to come to an agreement on payment should the work go ahead, and says he expects the money withing 30 days of the work being completed. It is due to start on friday, and also involves us letting the builders access our flat which I am not too happy about either.

It is not the first time something like this has happened too, despite us paying a yearly maintenance fee he hired a cleaner to do the shared hallway once a week and bills us for half the cost of it, even though I am very willing and ready to keep it clean myself.

Sorry if I sound clueless, but I really am. I guess this is something I need to thrash out with him.

missk_ensington

You need to get out your lease and read it. However, the fact he bought it after you bought your is irrelevent your lease will most likely still say the same thing, only prior to him buying the Freehold your money was going to someone else.

This is the risk you take when buying a Leasehold which has a Freeholder ruling the roost and not a Management Company in place. This will also have a detrimental affect if you wish to sell your flat at any point, as you will have to declare these disputes on Sellers Info and a potential purchaser will run a mile at the prospect of a sneaky Freeholder charging them every farts end.

I would tell him that you would happily do the cleaning yourself. And in any event, once a week for a cleaner to do a hallway is a bit much, my guess is that the cleaner comes anyway to his property once a week and you're subsidising his cleaning costs.

For some unscrupulous Freeholders, their job as Freeholder is a licence to print money. First things forst, get out your lease!
Your solicitor when you bought the property should have informed you about the implications of a Freeholder, it is not unlikely that some major work could need doing at some point where your third could be a few thousand pounds as it was at one of my Mums properties- £8,000 for the roof which was over £2600 each!

starlite_2

Thanks for your help.

Oh dear, it's not looking good then. I understand something like a roof, I mean if it was an invividual house and the roof needed replacing we'd have to pay for it.
It's just that some of this work is unnecesary in my view. He is buying a new front door, when we much prefer the original victorian one, which just needs painting and one window pane replacing. He is also putting in window boxes, which will look lovely but are a luxury we cannot afford.

It's not a case of just not wanting to pay. We would love for this work to be done as it will really improve the building, but we simply cannot afford it. I am pregnant and we have a 10 month old baby, and we are living solely on my OH's income at the moment which is quite a stretch.

He won't be negotiated with either, if he could wait until next year when I will be back in work and my OH will have been promoted we could afford it, but not now.

I know it's our own fault for not undestanding the lease terms, and having savings for such situations. At least we know to prepare for this in the future.

missk_ensington

'Caveat Empor-Buyer Beware' they say it for a reason!

I say this time and time again, and it particularly riles me when Estate Agents don't even understand a Freehold/Leasehold arrangement. When buying Leasehold you have to be VERY VERY careful and before even making an offer you need to know the terms of the lease. I don't know if you've studied it in depth, but you could have clauses such as no laminate flooring allowed, no animals etc etc. If you inadvertently breached the terms of your lease and you had a patricularly nasty Freeholder he could try and sue you for 'Forfeiture of Lease', which would mean you would have to pay him X amount and do whatever he says or he simply just takes the flat off you and owns it himself.

That is a very simplified version, but if costs racked up into the thousands because of maintenance work you couldn't afford to pay in essence he could personally repossess your house from you.

It has been known for Freeholders to force people into this position in order to obtain a whole building of flats, deliberately charging thousands knowing they can't pay it.

The number of people who buy a lease without realising the implications is unbelievable, and the number of times I've made enquirires at Estate Agents and asked what the arrangement is with Freeholder, they don't even know what the Freeholder is! Leases is something EA's are particularly bad with!

starlite_2

Jesus that is terrible!
Our estate agent didn't explain much, we negotiated renewal of th lease which was at 56 years, and got it up to 130 years for a couple of thousand pounds and really had no clue of the implications.
The worst thing is we were given first option on the freehold when it went for sale and couldn't afford it at the time. It would probably have been worth remortgaging to pay for.

missk_ensington

You should have bought the Freehold!!

I would never ever ever buy a lease it is almost the same as renting, only you pay the rent in one lump sum! Although you have 130 years, when it gets down to 80 years and below the value is going to drop significantly, say they've paid £100,000 and will stay there for 30 years, when that lease only had 50 years left it will be worth maybe £60,000. For everyone else in the country though their £100,000 investment after 30 years would be worth maybe double.

Still everyone makes mistakes and hopefully learn by them!

starlite_2

In London though it is really difficult to get a freehold property, and if you can it's usually a share of the freehold between the other properties in the block which I'm not sure is any better?

Thanks so much for all this advice though missk, as I said before I am embarrasingly clueless.

I am wondering if you would know about another issue? We have had an approach from a billboarding company who want to put one on the side of our building, obviously this would need to be agreed with the freeholder, but would he then get the income from it, or would we get a portion too?

It seems to be a good idea as the wall in question is three storeys high and has no windows on it, and is also not overlooked by any other properties so we can see no objections to it arising.

missk_ensington

I expect the profit would be split the ways also and would need permission in writing from all three residents (or perhaps the Freeholder can make this decision alone in his capacity of the Freeholder) I believe the pay can be quite good, a friend recently allowed a satellite on his business premises roof and got about £10,000 for it I believe.

I guess its different in London, Greater Manchester/lancashire where I live you don't actually see many leases unless they are on shops and businesses. Next time you move (is a flat suitable now you're expecting a little one?) look really hard for a little Freehold terraced house as it'll be worth it in the end even if it takes 12 months finding one!