Obstructed hallways in shared property : landlord's responsibility

sweetintuition

Hi,

I live in a purpose built block with about 15 flats where nearly everyone in each flat owns a bike which they park the halls and common areas of the building (that's nearly 2 dozen bikes!).

This is a HUGE issue since bikes obstructing the hallways and chained all the way up the stairwells to the point where we are tripping over them on the way down the stairs and can barely open the only exit in the building. It's outrageous, actually.

Goes without saying that it's also a huge safety hazard in the event of a fire and just in general.

I have complained to my landlord but they have been unresponsive. The flats are divided up between 2 landlords, who are often at odds about things, and no one has taken ownership of this.

Is there anything else that can be done about this from a legal / council point of view - i.e. complain to our council, etc? Does anyone know who's legal responsibility it is to ensure that these areas are not obstructed?

I called Shelter a year ago who seemed to be a bit unsure, but their answer was that they believed it was each tenants responsibility - but if the tenants are the problem - surely the responsibility should fall on the landlord?

Any help or info would be great. Thank you!

SerialRenter

You can ask a member of the Fire and Rescue service to visit your flats to complete a Home Fire Risk Assessment.

They're completely free and should carry some weight when reporting it to the landlord.

Source: http://www.fireservice.co.uk/safety/hfsc
Interesting read on the landlords obligations: (page 15, section 13)
http://www.dsfire.gov.uk/YourSafety/SafetyAtWorkandotherplaces/Adviceforlandlordsandlettingagents/documents/Firesafetyadvicetolandlords.pdf

TBagpuss

It's also worth taking photos and then writing to your own landlord and (if you know the details) to the other, raising concerns that this is in breach of the leases and that it presents a significant safety hazard.

princeofpounds

Fire sorted this out for a friend of mine once. Not sure how much legal compulsion vs moral compulsion was involved.

G_M

The problem is the responsibility of the freeholder of the building, or a management company if one is appointed by the freeholder.

They manage building repairs and maintenance, provision of lighting in common areas etc.

It is not the responsibility of individual flat owners (leaseholders), who in this case appear also to be landlords who have let their flats out to tenants.

So the leaseholder (your landlord) should complain to the freeholder.

Now, in some cases, each leaseholder also owns a share in a compay that owns the freehold, so there may be overlap in who are lease/freeholders, but the freehold is still a separate legal entity.

You can find the name of the freeholder by downloading the freehold title for the building for £3 here.

sweetintuition

Thanks for all your answers! I have contacted the fire service to see if anything can be done through them.

G_M - those details were really helpful, cheers for that. I did try to find the details of the freeholder but the form is turning up no results under the property details which is a bit worrying!

As far as I understand, there is both a landlord (freeholder) and a management company. The landlord owns half the flats and rents them out to individual tenants and the maintenance, etc is carried out by the management company (which I think is also actually owned by the landlord). However, the building itself is split between him and another landlord who owns the other half of the flats.

Which brings the confusion as to who is the main person(s) responsible - I presume both landlords? (freeholders?)

G_M

sweetintuition wrote: »

As far as I understand, there is both a landlord (freeholder)
do not confuse your LL with the freeholder.
and a management company. The landlord owns the leasehold on half the flats and rents them out to individual tenants and the maintenance, etc is carried out by the management company (which I think is also actually owned by the landlord). However, the building itself is split between him and another landlord who owns the other half of the flats.
The building is not split. There will be a single freeholder for the entire building.

Which brings the confusion as to who is the main person(s) responsible - I presume both landlords? (freeholders?)

The (possible) legal entities involved are

Freeholder (may be an individual, or a company. If a company, the company may be owned by the leaseholders (below). Responsible for the entire building structure (and owns the land beneath).
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Management Company (acting for Freeholder). Looks after day-to-day repairs etc of the building (not the flats).
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Leaseholders (eg 20 flats = 20 leaseholders. Though 1 person may own 10, and another person own the other 10). The leaseholders may also be the landlords of...
|
Tenants (20, if all the flats are let out)

Those 4 are all separate legal entities, with seperate responsibilities and rights.

However, it may be that a certin individual (eg your landlord) owns 10 leases, AND (separately) owns the Management Company, AND/OR part owns (or fully owns) the freehold.

I did try to find the details of the freeholder but the form is turning up no results under the property details which is a bit worrying!

If the freehold of the building has not been bought/sold/changed hands since the 1970s (when compulsory land registration started) then the freehold Title may not be registered with the Land Registry. Increasingly unusual these days, but not worrying.

You're sure there is no 'Title - freehold' listed for the address?

Oh - and this is England, yes?