Help please regarding roof (leasehold flat)

Stubbsy05

I've owned my Flat for 3 months and I am responsible for 30% of the Service charge.
When I bought the Flat I had a homebuyers survey done which said there were missing tiles on the roof that should be replaced.
Some work man have been up to replace these but have found that a lot of the tiles are in poor condition, so further investigation is needed. I found this out whilst on the phone to the managment company today.

Where do I stand? Can the freeholder hit me with a bill of thousands if major work on the roof is needed!

I'm currently doing the property up and want it on the market by March. Should I just try and get rid asap as that was my initial plan. (want a house)

Doozergirl

You're responsible for a third of repairs, so yes they can hit you with the bill and if they already know that more work needs doing, I suspect that bill will arrive before you have managed to sell.

Also, the fact you know these repairs are upcoming means you must say so in your sellers forms. If you don't, you buyer can come back and chase you for the money.


So, you can try and sell quicker, but be prepared for it to come back and bite you on the bum if you don't say anything

cattie

Dozergirl has given you the answer to your question & it's unlikely that you could manage to sell without any prospective buyer being aware of the required works to the roof. After all it's a solicitors job to enquire of any works that may be in the pipeline for the forseeable future as by the time you come to sell a decision will probably have been reached by the management company. Any buyer will then want to negotiate the price down to take this into account.

It's not all doom & gloom though, a flat with a new roof could be a good selling point as a buyer will know they are not going to be hit for a bill towards replacement at some point during the not too distant future.

Also if your flat is in a converted house the bill doesn't need to run into several thousands for your portion, providing your managing agents play fair with the roofing company they use.

Try to find out how much a roof on a comparable property would cost. My neighbour recently had a new roof on her 3 bed house for a cost of £3500, this is in the SE where prices tend to be a bit higher than up north.