Leasehold: mayor work bill over £16,000

solelunauk

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Dear all

Hopefully someone will be able to help me .

Basically I purchased a leasehold maisonette 4 years ago and no major works were advised for the next 7 years.
After 6 months we received a Section 20 'notice of intent to carry out major works'estimated to cost a total of £20,000 (about £2,000 per property). A year later, I received a new 'notice of intent' letter replacing the previous one with a new list of works and consequently a new estimate of £16,000 per property. Some of the work you could see needed doing in my opinion (i.e. replacing the old windows with double glazing) however most of the cost was due to a roof replacement. Why was the roof replaced? No reported leaks, problems or visible signs of wear & tear. The only reason I could acertain was that the roof had a 10 year life span & was now 10 years old...?

We had a meeting with the contractors a few months after receiving the 2nd letter and they confirmed that the estimated costs for the roofing were based on a preliminary survey ( only one out of five loft were inspected). Further investigation would follow...Then no more communication, the work started & is now complete.

No reason was given for the need to replace the roof.

My major problems are:

-That the roof has been done without giving any reason/justification as no leak or problem was ever reported.

- A huge amount of money is now being requested only one year after purchasing the property without any prior indication of major works needed on the structure.

- At the time of purchase, surely such major work should have been advised/mentioned?


Is there anything I can do? Do I have point I could argue? I am I liable for the payment?[/FONT]

G_M

Did they follow the 'major works' process?

More info and advice available from Lease Advice.

solelunauk

Thanks for you quick reply!!!

I think that they follow most of the procedure. the only part that i would argue that they missed is on not giving the reason for doing the works.
They originally indicated the roofing as a potential work to be done and it was still not confirmed at our last meeting with the contractor and the housing assoc. representatives. In fact they told me that only 1 loft out of 5 was inspected and no issue was reported.

££sc££

I think the freeholder can replace if expected lifespan is up. E.g many councils replace all roofs or windows on their estates at the same time as the lifespans are up, it can't be that every roof/window is leaking etc, many of the buildings will be flats with leaseholders.

If they have followed section 20 procedure (as above) correctly i'm not sure what else you can do I'm afraid.

Check the wording of the response from the freeholder/management company to your solicitor. If they definitely said no major works would happen maybe give your a solicitor a ring for some advice.

G_M

££sc££ wrote: »

I think the freeholder can replace if expected lifespan is up. E.g many councils replace all roofs or windows on their estates at the same time as the lifespans are up, it can't be that every roof/window is leaking etc, many of the buildings will be flats with leaseholders.

If they have followed section 20 procedure (as above) correctly i'm not sure what else you can do I'm afraid.

Check the wording of the response from the freeholder/management company to your solicitor. If they definitely said no major works would happen maybe give your a solicitor a ring for some advice.

I'm afraid I doubt that will help. They'll have said 'no major works planned at this time' or similar. No one can predict future major works 100%.

solelunauk

G_M on the doc sent to my solicitor they use no major works planned at this time' ..... but it as they should known that roof lifespan is 30 years and have a detailed plan for the maintenance of all these types of works. I don't believe they realised only at the last minute.
Plus from the decent home guidance they said:
' 5.13 One or more key components, or two or more other components, must be both old and in poor condition to render the dwelling non-decent on grounds of disrepair. Components that are old but in good condition or in poor condition but not old would not, in themselves, cause the dwelling to fail the standard.'
From this paragraph i get that even if the roof reached its 30 years of lifespan but still in good condition, no necessarily the work is required.
and on the 'notice of intent ' sent to me they mentioned that the roof was indicated as 'possible' work and any work that will not be considered necessary will be omitted.

Regarding the tendering, I received only one contractor statement of estimate. The contractor was selected by the housing association after carrying out "a mini tendering exercise amongst the relevant contractors" (no details of this mini tendering exercise was given): is it part of s.20 procedures?

solelunauk

Also
I've just noticed that there were issued a stage 1 and stage 2 consultation notice between Jul 2005 and Jun 2006 that i wasn't informed of as i purchased the property in 2007.....

in the doc sent to my solicitor it was mentioned only as planned works/Pre-tender (section 151) few planned works to be carried out within the next 7 years where "Section 20 notices had not yet been served"
as far i'm aware stage 1 is the pre-tender consultation and stage 2 tender-stage consultation
does it mean that i was not informed of the stage 2 consultation when i bought the property?

softekcom

Hi Solelunauk:

We are in a similar position. We bought our leasehold flat in August 2005 and over the next three years paid £2000 in Major Works bills. Then in 2009 we got a section 20 notice for another £13000 worth of works. The reason the management company gave was a) regeneration and b) improving tenanted dwellings to achieve the Decent Homes standards. Nothing to do with any need or urgency for anything to be repaired/replaced due to wear and tear or deterioration. They were doing the work to tick something off on a checklist.

I queried the section 20 notice asking why the works were needed and why now. But I got a very vague/general reply. The work was completed around a year ago - no work was done within our flat as we had done the rewiring, windows etc when we bought it in 2005.

We got our bill a year ago but have not started paying it yet. I was hoping to challenge it. But having gone through the lease agreement it looks like challenging the bill will be very complicated and the legal fees will be backbreaking.... So we will start paying soon.

-sof

softekcom

Forgot to add - some other leaseholders got their new double glazing windows done by as part of the major works. They have got the same bill as us. When I asked the management company to take off the cost of our internal rewiring and windows I was informed that we should have applied to the council for exemption at the time we had these works done within our flat. (The council is under no obligation to exempt these items from future major works bills, but it does sometimes agree.) Apparently too late now.