Communal garden

bouicca21

I am about to make an offer on a ground floor flat. There is a communal garden and the two ground floor flats each have what is effectively a private patio area. Am I right in thinking that there are no generic rights where a communal garden is involved and that I need to read the lease in order to find out what rights I would have over the garden - e.g. is the 'private' area really mine, can I put garden furniture on it, can I put up a washing line?

AnnieO1234

Precisely, refer to lease and plan. Anything else is just conjecture.

Xxx

Dan-Dan

Though why anyone in their right mind would offer on a ground floor flat is beyond me!

bouicca21

Er, why DanDan?

princeofpounds

Er, why DanDan?

Some people just don't like them.

Audrey_Wright

Communal and private somehow don't stick on the same side in my head.. But refer to your lease and the seller, if you want to be sure.

Dan-Dan

bouicca21 wrote: »

Er, why DanDan?

How long have you got ?

Leasehold - charges - inescapable noise - constant changing neighbours....

Jenniefour

This sort of arrangement is fairly common with shared gardens and usually works fine. Unless one of the ground floor flats starts fencing off big areas or building an enormous patio, or an upstairs neighbour decides to have a BBQ outside your lounge windows.

Exactly the arrangement in a flat I owned - two ground floor owners each had a small patio which they had asked permmission to have first and there was a further big patio and brick built BBQ down the garden for everyone to use. The entire garden was owned jointly. Worked very well indeed. Key to making it work is having co-operative relations with other owners and people being reasonable!

So the patio might not be included in your lease, but everyone else regards as essentially yours in terms of use.

Do check what your lease says about washing lines - some leases prohibit them, presumably because other residents have to put up with looking at someone's washing. If there is prohibition then ask if you can put up one of the whirly gig things - more likely to be agreed informally.

bouicca21

Thanks DanDan - those issues I have thought about, was a bit worried there might be something else that I'd overlooked. I seem to have a choice between a smallish flat in a nice area or a nice house in a horrid area. And let's face it I might not even have my offer accepted on this one (the saga of my attempts to buy in the London bubble may continue ...). Noise is the one thing that does bother me. I can cope with the rest, especially with direct access to a garden.

nickyg2000

bouicca21 I agree. Bought a flat in a nice area instead of a house in a crap one. No regrets other than the poor soundproofing. What type of flat is it? How old is it? Rule of thumb, if its been built since 2003 its should be soundproofed. If its earlier than that get a test done. Every building is different, some 90's flat are awful some OK for example.
So try and get a noise survey done if posable.

rpc

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Leasehold - charges - inescapable noise - constant changing neighbours....

All of which apply to flats on other floors too!