Leasehold property and major works

thebraveone

The housing association who manages our leasehold flat have recently advised us that they intend to complete major works on our block. They have sent us an estimate for over £8k of work and plan to come and discuss this with us on 4th July, then a consultation will follow. We have major concerns with the estimate provided as follows:

-Most of the work has no relevance our flat at all. For example, a large sum has been put into rewiring and decorating the 'communal areas'. Our flat is on the end of a purpose built block of six and has a private entrance. We do not use or have access to the communal areas - these are secured.
-Generally the work seems over priced. For example, they are planning to put new front doors on all the flats and this has been priced at £1140 per door. We recently looked into replacing our door and the quotes we got were around the £500 mark - this is over 50% higher. There is also a charge for £3000 for 'environmental boundary works'. We don't know what this means (I'm asking for more information) but this means that whatever it is, is being charged at £18000 for for the six flats.

This is a huge amount of money for work which appears to be mainly cosmetic. We were planning on selling the flat next year so obviously this is very bad news. We had plans for getting married in 2015 and for me to start re-training, all these plans will no longer be able to happen. I am just devastated - please go easy on me!

My main queries are:
-How would I go about addressing the issue of the seemingly over-inflated charges?
-Do you think it's possible in these situations to negotiate a reduced charge for our flat, given the situation with the 'communal' areas?

I have been advised that it will be in my lease as to whether I am liable to pay for a sixth of anything done to the block, however I have read my lease and can't see this anywhere. (This could be down to me not understanding some of the legal terms.)

I know that I can go to the Leaseholder Tribunal if I don't believe that the costs are 'reasonable' but as this in itself costs money to do, I just want an idea if I have a case at all.

I would be very grateful for any advice/benefit of experience that you can give me.

Thank you very much.

richardw

Perhaps get someone at the CAB to look at your lease.
Is the specification of the £1140 door higher than your door? Does it have different locks, or is it exactly the same? You have to compare like with like.
You need more detail about what the £18 000 for boundary works represents.

Moonraker71

No specific advice to offer, just want to say I really sympathise with you. This happened to me many years ago in my last flat, was stung for £5,000 about a month before I was due to leave on a round-the-world trip that I'd saved up for three years for, and I had to seriously curtail my plans. Not sure of where you stand legally, but can you get together with the other flat owners and be a united front? (At least for the parts that concern all of you?)

On another note, where I live now there is a basement flat and they have their own front door and no access to the main building and communal areas (they have to ring one of our buzzers if they want to come in and check their meters or collect wrongly-delivered mail). They are liable for a 20% share of all works, and we had the communal areas decorated about four years ago and I really felt for them having to stump up the cash. As above, you really need to get your lease checked to be clear on this. It doesn't seem fair at all.

Buying leasehold really is a mug's game sometimes, but in London and other urban areas like Brighton where I live it is the norm unfortunately.

thebraveone

Thanks guys.

We live in Manchester but leasehold seems to be the norm for most flats.

Moonraker, in your flat where the basement flat pays 20%, how many flats are in the building? Just wondering if that's an equal share or if they just pay a part contribution?

I'm under no illusions that we'll be able to get away with paying nothing, I'm prepared to pay a contribution. Ideally I would like to negotiate with them on this. I just don't know how open they are going to be about that or how to approach it.

propertyman

With older conversions in L and M as above its fairly common for the basement flat to pay the same contribution as the other flats as service charges are lumped in as one expense as " anything not part of a flat".

If in the lease it is expressed as fixed share eg 1/5th or 20 % then barring everyones agreement they are stuck with it. if it is a variable or allows for revision an argument can be made to have that adjusted to reflect what is sensible. But be warned land law has its own logic.

The same applies to modern buildings though it is more common to see that broken down into sectors or schedules , as shown in the lease so that all flats pay for the exterior and structure, at whatever share, and some only pay for the interior common parts, again at whatever share between them


I would suggest a letter along the lines of

As I have no access to or use the common parts of the building having my own entrance, can you please explain what contributions and share I maybe liable for under the proposed works with specific reference to my lease and how it apportions these.

As to the proposals to change the doors I under stand from my lease ( I am assuming from your post) that these doors are mine. That would mean that doors to other flats are either the leaseholder’s or yours as landlords.
Could you therefore please explain how under the lease these are recoverable as a service charge, and if they are “ours” on what basis can you remove them and change them?

Please make sure that these are made in the context of a formal observation and response to the notices served on you, or if they have yet to be served, to the leasehold services dept of your HA and follow it up through the complaints procedure if they do not respond in accordance within their time limits.

Moonraker71

There are 7 flats in the building in total - 2 x two-bedrooms and 1 x one-bedroom (mine). We all pay 20% each because these all occupy an entire floor. There are also 4 x studio flats too (2 per floor) and they pay 10% each.

500pages

There's probably a clause in your lease about it, but you can get some really good advice from the leasehold advisory service (google it - i can't post links cos I'm a new user).

It's completely free - they spoke to us for ages on the phone (after we waited to get through). Would highly recommend.