Sub-underlease owner needing advice!

abingdon63

I own the sub-underlease comprising the basement flat of a building and the underlease( and I think the freehold ) is owned by the family who own the 3 flats above.
I have always had to pay ground rent which is fixed and then service charges which before they bought the property was little more than a share of the buildings insurance and occasional repainting.
Since they bought the property the service charge is getting higher and higher as they do general building works, damp proofing, employ a cleaner and I am then presented with a bill which they work out my share of.
What rights do I have to challenge their proposed works/allocation of cost?
Is there somewhere I can get free(or cheap legal advice to go through my complicated lease document? Help!!

silvercar

I'm sure you are entitled to a breakdown of the costs. I also think that, for costs above a certain amount, they are obliged to get quotes.

cattie

http://www.lease-advice.org/newintro.htm are the people that may be able to advise you. It's a governement funded agency offering free advice for leaseholders.

At least it sounds as if you have freeholders that are now bringing the building up to good standard.

abingdon63

I agree that they are maintaining the value of the building but I don't see why I should be billed for works in their part of the building that I don't use or benfit from!

EdInvestor

Normally the costs are shared by all flats, but sometimes there are exclusions for the basement, eg for cleaning and lighting common parts which they don't use.

You need to check what it says in your lease.

bionic_banjo

There are lots of helpful threads on this forum - do a search under 'service charge'. Basically the costs have to be reasonable.