Leasehold vs Council

lairylisa

Surely if the property was not built properly in the first place, it shouldn't be up to us to pay, after all, it is an ex council flat. Also, the people living above us and next door are all council tenants.

Doozergirl

It could have belonged to the queen. It belongs to you now!

When you buy a property, even leasehold, you are still responsible for repairs and maintenance.

When you are in the process of buying a property, the phrase that applies to all buyers is "caveat emptor" - this means "buyer beware". You are buying the property exactly as it is, warts and all, which is why it is so important to have a full survey if you don't want to deal with problems in the near future. Even so, if you did have a full buildings survey and this is something that was not visible behind plaster work etc then the surveyor can't be blamed for missing it either.

All houses come with maintenance issues and deteriorate over time. Home ownership costs more than just the mortgage. Just because the council own the freehold, it doesn't mean that it becomes their problem to pay for. If you were renting it from the council, the whole thing belongs to them and as a landlord they are responsible. If your neighbours are council tenants, then their repairs will be paid for - presumably they will have the same lintels.

lairylisa

Hi, I did have a full survey and the problem with the lintels is outside the property not inside. When you look at the property you can see that the lintels are not fitted as it should be, a surveyor should have picked this up as there is gapping holes in the external brick work. I am a nurse, not a builder, so it's only just been noticed from talking to other people.

MisterBaxter

As a general rule the freeholder will be responsible for maintaining the external fabric of the building, the structure and any common parts. The freeholder will also generally insure the structure of the building (buildings insurance).

The cost of insurance premiums is usually recovered from leaseholders through a service charge.

Whether or not the freeholder can recover repairing costs from the leaseholder will be down to what the lease actually says but a properly worded lease will usually make provision for the freeholder to recover all costs through a service charge. Sometimes with Council freeholders there will be fixed annual service charge that pays in to a sinking fund which then covers all repairs, this seems to comes from the RTB requirement to provide tenants going through the RTB process with service charge costs for the first 5 years after purchase. If the leaseholders pay in to a sinking fund then the work should really be covered by that, if not then the costs may well be recoverable.

My view would be that lintels are a structural element of the building and as such would fall to the freeholder.

Check the lease, who does what and who pays for what will be listed. The fact that the property in your opinion wasn't built properly in the first place is unfortunately irrelevant (unless it is new build and under warranty), once you bought the lease you bought all the liabilities under the lease.

cattie

lairylisa wrote: »

Hi, I did have a full survey and the problem with the lintels is outside the property not inside. When you look at the property you can see that the lintels are not fitted as it should be, a surveyor should have picked this up as there is gapping holes in the external brick work.

In that case you should be speaking to the surveyor you used as if it's a very obvious problem, as you seem to be indicating it is, then there is no reason why it wasn't picked up on at the time of the survey.

Even if the council as the freeholder is liable to arrange for repairs, the council will want to recover the costs of any repairs from the owners of all properties involved if cost is not subject of a buildings insurance claim. They do not have an obligation to pay for such work, just to arrange it.

lairylisa

Thank you everyone for your help, I think I may need to get legal advice re the lease. It is not written in plain English and the lease agreement was from 1998 way before I bought the property. I did not sign my own lease agreement so I presume that the original still stands.
Once again thanks

lairylisa

Would subsidence be covered under buildings insurance?

cattie

When you buy a property you don't get a new lease, you take over the existing one & it's the job of your solicitor to read through it & warn you of any sections that might be out of the ordinary for a residential lease. You must have signed something agreeing to the terms of the lease during the buying process.

When you buy a leasehold property, if you don't agree with the terms of the lease, then you just don't buy it, you're not able to ask for anything to be changed or say that you don't agree with anything it contains. is a legal document

It doesn't matter when the lease was drawn up, the terms of the lease still stand until it expires or is renewed, even if it was set up 100+ years ago.

Yes, subsidence is usually covered under building insurance, but insurance company need to send out their own professionals to establish if it is subsidence & what the cause is. Properties that have suffered subsidence are very difficult to sell on as a lot of mortgage lenders don't like lending on properties with recent structural problems, plus buildings insurance usually goes through the roof after a claim is made.

MisterBaxter

The other thing to watch out for on any insurance claim that involves a freehold/leasehold situation is the excess and who has to pay it. To keep costs down the freeholder, particularly a council will most likely have a block policy and may well have kept the premiums down by agreeing to huge excess figures, if these are apportioned across the flats then there could still be a bill.

If the lintels are simply defective then this probably wouldn't be covered under subsidence in any case.

bunnybunnyrabbit

In all likelihood, the council will be responsible for arranging the structural repairs. The cost will be split (as per the terms of your lease; it may say you pay 1/4 (e.g) of the costs or a fair contribution, but it'll probably be divided by however many flats there are in the building). It will then be recovered via your service charge, sinking fund or billed separately as a major work. You really need to speak to a leasehold manager at your council for clarification. They will probably send a surveyor to inspect and quote for repairs. If it's going to cost you more than £250 they have a legal responsibility to consult with you on this.

If you don't get anywhere with the council, contact the Leasehold Advisory Service for free advice (https://www.lease-advice.org)