sue management compnay

stranger12

Hi All,

I have bought a flat which is a leasehold and managed by management company .

Our security gate ( the door to enter the building ) has been out of order for the last 7-8 month . I did sent 4-5 emails and lodged a complaint. the answer from them was to send someone to inspact and once they did they said it will be fixed soon which 4 month has passed and still nothing

the door is a saftey risk for residents as an intruder can steel cars or even break in etc .

last week we had an incident where by one bike was stolen from the bike locked up garage due to the main gate been left open 24/7 thus any can come in into the parking and hence bike locked up garage.


now I want to know what are my options ? the management company is charging people £100+ per month and providing no service whatsoever. is there any legal action I could take ?

I am desprate as my bike/car could be next or even my flat .

eddddy

hi stranger

First of all, you need to check your lease to ensure that the freeholder is responsible for maintaining the gate. (The management company just acts on behalf of the freeholder. It's the freeholder who usually has legal responsibility.)

Assuming the freeholder is responsible for maintaining the gate, and it's lack of a lock resulted in the bike being stolen - the bike's owner could sue the freeholder for negligence (to recover the bike's value).

If anyone else suffers a loss as a result of the broken lock - they can also sue the freeholder.

Apart from that, you could take the freeholder to court to get a court order requiring him to fulfill his obligations under the lease. (i.e. telling him to fix the gate.)

If the freeholder then ignored the court order, he could end up in prison for contempt of court.

To get a court order, you would probably need to get a solicitor (and costs would start mounting up).

Ironically, if you won the case in court, and the freeholder was ordered to pay all the legal costs, he may still be able to recharge the costs back to you (and the other leaseholders) as part of the management charges.

Or another option... if the current management company are not doing a good job, there are ways that you (and other leaseholders) can force a change of management company. But again this a fairly complex legal process, and again you would probably need legal advice.

In short, it can be very difficult to do anything about a 'disinterested' freeholder.