Entrance to top floor flat not being maintained so risk of further damage

james_p1

Not really sure where to post this as covers two areas.

My girlfriend and I have recently bought the ground floor flat of a converted Victorian building. At the side of the house is the driveway where we park our car there at during the day and night and next to that is the stairway entrance to the two flats above. At the top there is a wooden covering with a trellis at the side.

The reason I'm posting is we've recently noticed the wooden Trellis at the side has broken/split and is hanging down slightly. At some point it will fall down, most likely pulling down two BT lines as well as landing on my car. The rest of the covering should be ok as it is held up by metal polls attached to the brick.

I've mentioned it to the guy who owns the top flat (he's also the freeholder for the building) and he's already had a quote. But as it will require scaffolding it's an expensive bit of work so he's not willing to pay for it.

Where does this leave us? It's essentially his private entrance and there's no management company for the flats - Each flat is responsible for maintaining and insuring their section.

My other concern is should the trellis fall and land on my car, what insurance cover will I have? Is this 'act of god' territory and whose car/home insurance would pay out?

I'm also guess that BT would repair the line for free as it's not been deliberately damaged.

Sorry, lots of questions. If you need more details let me know.

sooz

Check your lease. It's very unusual that each flat is responsible for insuring & maintaining its own floor. If this is indeed what it says, your solicitor should have warned you how ludicrous this was before you bought.

tbs624

Have a look over at https://www.lease-advice.org

james_p1

sooz wrote: »

Check your lease. It's very unusual that each flat is responsible for insuring & maintaining its own floor. If this is indeed what it says, your solicitor should have warned you how ludicrous this was before you bought.

He did comment that it would be more complicated, a lot of the houses around here were split this way during the 70's into flats and at the time of buying the other two owners said they would be interested establish a management company. However, the top flat (the freeholder) is now reluctant to enter into anything. They don't think there's anything wrong with the current arrangement. I am surprised the middle flat isn't pushing for it more but apparently their solicitor didn't make a big issue of it when they purchased (mid 2009).

According to the lease only the driveway is classed as communal area. The garden's/courtyards are separately owned by different flats, however the lease do allow all three flats to use the washing line in the rear garden on a sunday! So even if we did have a company in place would this not still count as their private entrance?

G_M

Put your concerns in writing.

Point out that if, having given the guy fair warning, the trellis falls and damges your car because he continues to avoid remedial work, you will sue for damages and have a cast-iron case.

But you really need to address this whole who manages/pays for what issue. Normally structural issues (foundations, dpc, walls, roof etc) are shared responsibility/cost.