Conditions of the lease

ctm_2

i live in a block of flats (and we are probably going to sack our managing agent in the next few months and manage ourselves, but that is almost irrelevant to this post) and have recently been told of a problem with one of the flats.

They have installed laminate flooring throughout, which goes against what the lease says. They are also in the process of selling. The laminate causes a noise nuisance to the flats below.

As they are breaching the conditions of the lease, whose responsibility is it to tell them they need to get rid of the laminate and use suitable noise deadening floor coverings? Is this what the freeholder does?

Also how would we collect the service charge from people who don't pay? The lease says they have to, so is it again down to the freeholder to chase this?

lynzpower

Who has fitted the flooring? the managing agents?

ctm_2

No, the current owners of the flat have fitted the flooring.

cattie

You would need to put your complaint into writing to the managing agents to pass on to the freeholder regarding the laminate flooring & breaching of the terms of the lease. It would be advisable to let the guilty flat owner know of your intention to give them a chance to remedy the situation. If an official complaint is made against him/her then they are legally bound to mention this to any prospective purchaser of the flat, so it could affect their intended sale in a negative way.

For info on managing your own leasehold properties & all issues concerned with owning leasehold or acquiring the freehold you need this site. It's a governement funded agency & a valuable resource for help & advice on most aspects of owning leasehold property. http://www.lease-advice.org/newintro.htm

jamesd

ctm, it's also worth noting that laminate flooring doesn't have to be noisy for those below. It sounds as though they haven't installed a sufficient (or any?) sound barrier between the floorboards and the laminate and possibly haven't ensured that the laminate is a floating floor isolated from that below. They could rectify this by removing the flooring, installing appropriate insulation and then reinstalling the flooring.