Damage to communal areas by other owner's tenant

wired1

Hi everyone

I like my neighbours in the main and confrontation has never sat well with me - and it's just awful to have to live next door to someone you have a beef with. I do though have two issues with them I'd appreciate some advice on...

1) we have a communal garden which until last summer was a wasteland. I spent hours and hours redoing it and have spent around £1k of my own money to make it look nice (my flat leads directly onto it so think it will be a good selling point when I want to move so I'll take the financial hit). Once I had finished relaying a new lawn he decided to buy a 4.5m playground for his 2yr old daughter. I wasn't happy but as it was a communal garden (with 4 further tenants) felt I couldn't say no. Instead I said that it was fine so long as they kept the area it was in in good condition - I wasn't prepared to maintain an area of the garden that was going to look awful no matter how much I tended it. Since then they have done nothing to it, despite me offering my tools for weeding, giving advice on what they might do and reminding them on about 4/5 occasions. The weeds are almost 2ft high. I know my other neighbours want the play area removed as it is hideous but as usual one person is left to do something about it - me. I have spoken to his landlord (he rents) but he said that if we all wanted it removed we had to speak to the management company and get them to write a letter to him? What do people think about that?


2) We have a communal parking area, where he has 1 of 4 spaces. He's a useful bloke and Polish, with some friends in the neighbourhood. A while ago he started fixing the occasional car for a mate of his. We let that go - he was doing a favour for a few friends and maybe making a bit of money out of it - very industrious, no skin off our nose etc. Now though, it seems every Pole in the area uses him as the local mechanice. The parking area is a wreck, it looks like a travellers site. Again I've asked him to tidy it up on countless occasions and he never does it. He has a van on site he uses as a tool shed - it's been there 2 years. There are tyres, scrap metal, bits of wood and now a gazebo to help him work under cover if it rains! I want this little business of his to stop - he's really taking the mick I think. What should I do?

Please help!

Browntoa

report the "flytipping" on the parking spaces....let the council sort it

BitterAndTwisted

You gave him permission for this playground thing although the garden is communal? It wasn't your decision to make, so you appear to have made a rod for your own back. As for suggesting or demanding that he maintains this garden, this was foolish in the extreme. What do the other residents make of your commandeering this communal space and deciding that you're in charge of it?

Guest101

Whilst the garden is communal, who has responsibility to maintain the garden?

wired1

Guest101 No one does - that's been the problem. It became really overgrown and so I cleared it all, replanted it, reseeded the lawn etc. Other residents were really pleased that someone had actually done something about it, and that it was no longer an eyesore but somewhere people could go and sit with a coffee etc and enjoy. Neighbour asked my permission as he was about to lay down an enormous play area across an area of lawn it has taken me weeks to dig over and reseed. I thought that was just courtesy. I said I didn't mind but that he should then consider himself in charge of that area of the garden, weeds and all.

The way I see it is that if you want to section an area of the garden off that no other resident can use by putting an enormous play area on it (he didn't ask anyone else their opinion or his landlord's permission) then it becomes your responsibility as a whole to make it look good.

If he had been content to let his LO run around on the lawn I'd planted I'd still be happily doing the whole garden at my own expense for the benefit of everyone. Does that make sense?

wired1

p.s. the other flatowners all hate the play area but like me don't like confrontation so won't say anything. One of them is trying to sell their flat and has been advised by the agent not to tell them the communal garden and parking is part of the deal in case it puts buyers off!

Jomo

Usually the management company are responsible for the upkeep of everything communal, paid out of the management fee you pay them each month.

If they aren't already maintaining the garden can you not ask them to do so, it will alleviate you from the headache of it all.

Re the parking spaces, again, another issue for the management company to deal with.

wired1

So Jomo do you think I should call the management company and ask them to speak to the tenant/landlord about stopping his business activities and making good the damage to the parking area? Then also say that it is the wish of all the tenants that the play area be removed - I can always cc them in to an email to the company to show we're all in agreement?

G_M

Just to be clear:

* this is a tenant, not the leaseholder?
* Do you know what type of tenancy?
* Haveyou discussed with the tenant's landlord (the leaseholder)?
* the parking area is private? Part of the property? Not council or public?
* what does the leasesay about the parking area?
* what does the lease say about running abusiness from the property?
* what does the tenancy agreement say about running a business from the property? If you don't know, have you asked the landlord/leaseholder?
* what does the lease say about the garden?
* what does the lease say about causing a nuisance to other leaseholders?
* Is there a management company? Who is the freeholder? Do you all jointly own the freehold?
* are there any service costs? To cover what? Garden? Parking area?

Werdnal

OP, as I see it you took on voluntary maintenance of the communal garden and brought it up to a standard where all tenants/occupants could utilise the area, which is admirable ... but you are now trying to dictate HOW they use it, which is not your right or responsibility. No-one asked (or by the sound of it gave permission) for you to spend your own money on it, and this gives you no right to tell anyone how to use it, how to look after it or what they can and cannot do in it.

As for the parking area, if there is an issue, then speak to the management company and ask them to inspect and take whatever action they see fit to deal with it. They own the space, so they do have the right to control what it is used for and by whom.

zzzLazyDaisy

The management committee's contract is with the landlord, not the tenant.

I would be writing a formal complaint on behalf of all the affected flat owners, and getting them to sign it too, setting out the problems, in a few short sentences, to the point and unemotional. I also don't think it is necessary to identify him as Polish. I would also enclose a couple of photos of the problem areas. Make it clear that the person causing the problems is a tenant living at flatx, owned by Mr LL, and that you have spoken to him and he has suggested that you approach the management committee for assistance.

I would send the letter by old-fashioned post (not e-mail) and I'd send it by special delivery. There is a cost of about £4 for this but it means that it is hand delivered to someone who has to sign, and that signature and proof of delivery can then be downloaded from the internet.

Hopefully if the management committee put pressure on the LL he will serve notice on the tenant for the sake of a quiet life, although that gives you no guarantees about the next tenant.

Another point - it is worth checking the lease, as some prohibit subletting.