I bought a pad, but I was never told about a massive impending Lease bill

john_white

Also IME, every year we got a 5 year plan of works. Whilst external/internal decorating was on there, no other major works ever were. We had 3 lots of major works in 6 ish years.

For example the car parking needed digging up and relaying (about 4k per flat). To me that should have been 'planned' but what actually happens is they leave it as long as possible, then 1 day decide to do it. So planning is months rather than years.

As i say, just my experience.

492800

Hi there, I’ll try and reply to your questions.

-Blckbird – you mention the Law Society PIF.. That is the exact form the vendors filled out. Which is good I suppose as it says things should be disclosed even after signing.. But I presume they could always say they never received the Part 2 estimates bill?

I’ve updated my timeline with dates and better info, does this make a bit more sense now?

1) 2012 June 16th – Offer accepted

2) 2012 June 26th Vendors fill out the PIF.

3) 2012 July 27th Estimated Service Charge for 2012 – 2013 sent from FH to the vendors. This includes “Part 2, major works Interim demand for service charges 2012-2013”. This mentions the Water tank (estimated @ £27,000 for the block).
I only just found out about this last week via the Freeholder as it was not disclosed during the sale.

4) 2012 August 7th. The preassignment info was sent out. This does not mention the Water tanks information/Part 2
It states “There are no outstanding invoices raised for rechargeable works”.
Even though there is no list it does say “the above list may not be a definite list and may be a guidline. Please rely on the above info above with regards to Major works and make appropriate retention….. for further enquiries call the section 20 team etc”

Also “There are no Section 20 notices served on the current leaseholder”. Again no list, and also “The above may not be a definitive list and is only a guideline. The major works team have advised the due dates for section 20, invoices are currently not known”

5) 2012 August 17th I exchange, and then complete in 2012 October

6) 2012 November 30th, I receive (addressed to lessee) “Statutory consultation” paperwork about the water tank. This is fully broken down into “Schedule of costings” and now estimated @ £45,000. It mentions “this is not a bill” and that “what happens next? – A secion 20 will be sent to you with your individual estimated liability”

7) 2013 January 21st “Notification of Intention for qualifying works under schedule 3” arrives finally stating my individual estimated amount .

Do these all seem as they should to you?

I’m so sorry. I’ve been so busy I haven’t responded to your other questions yet, I'm seeing a conveyancing solicitor (a friend) later so have been getting all my paperwork ready for him.

492800

I've just heard from my solicitor:

He has said that the council was deficient in their pre-assignment pack, but not sure of what comeback I have.

“The formal Notice of Intention was served on the 21 January 2013 to you, the present owner, not the previous owners. As such, no Notice of Intention was issued to the Seller, it was only mentioned as part of the service charge estimation but at this stage (in July) there were no firm plans as the Council is required by law to go through what is termed the section 20 procedure and the Notice of Intention is the first step under that."

The way my solicitor has summarised it. does this make things worse for my case?

blckbrd

It will depend hon how Lambeth do things.

Tank renewals are usually planned so if they had a programme in place, they should have included it in the pack as future works. If their packs are like the one's I'm used to there'd be a block budget estimate next to it and the year they intended to do the work. People do use this info to try and negotiate on price.

All you can do is write and ask for a reduction. Had you lived in one of the boroughs i worked in you'd have definitely got it in the circumstances I've given.

492800

Blckbrd, if this happened in your borough, who would the person write to regarding the reduction? Would it be the Head of home ownership services, as they issue the bills.
And is a letter or phone call best to start with?

FYI, i phoned up Lease and they weren't that optimitstic.

blckbrd

Doen't hurt to write to the head of leasehold/home ownership services or maybe they have a major works manager who'd be more directly involved in the billing. Always write rather than phone.

Suck it and see OP. You'll be no worse off than you are now and, who knows, the response may be positive.

492800

It's 7 months on and I feel I should give a bit of an update.

I contacted the council and informed them that they should have had the relevant information on their pre-assignment paperwork when I bought the place. Their astonishing reply was that, their legal paperwork does not have to be correct or up to date. Which was shocking, and yet sadly true.
How incredibly rubbish is that!!!

In the mean time the work was carried out and I eventually got to inspect the work.
It took 4 days in total (costing £45,000 for 2 water tanks)

The bill wasnt finalised yet but amongst all the proper work billed for they also wanted to charge £3,000 for what turned out to be 22 wooden boards for loft flooring (Homebase cost = £400 max!)
£9,000 for 2 fuse boxes and 4 strip lights!!!
and £600 for two 2"x2" x 2foot long pieces of wood! homebase cost =£3.

Furious? Moi? Oh yes!

It was at this point that I found out that a new Head of the Council had been appointed, and I sent her a fresh letter pleading for her to intervene, and mentioned again that their paperwork had been wrong and deceptive. I also tried to make her understand my plight.

Luckily, after quite a long wait, she phoned me up, explained that she wanted to do the right thing and quashed the bill for the
water tanks.

Huzzah! Result.

So I am happy for now, and looking forward to my next battle with Lambeth!

Thank you so much blckbrd! You helped so much, just a shame you seem to have disappeared off this forum and from your email too.