Freehold/leasehold & insurance query

Splash81

Hi,

We live in the bottom floor of a split vistorian property purachsed 2 years ago. We are leaseholders and upstairs are the freeholder. When we moved into the property we joined the insurance policy on the hosu which is the in the 4 inhabitants names (couple upstairs and mine and my husbands).

We have been doing up our properly gradually (new windows etc) and now have come to taking up the floorboards as the floors were uneven- especially in the hall. In turns out that when the property was split ito 2 flats in the 80's the builders built the wall directly on the floorboards 9not clever) which lead to the floorboards sinking (why it was uneven). We had a buildings report done for our mortgage which advised this was due to age of the property but that they couldn't vouch for what was under the floorboards. However it was not reasonable for us to pull the house apart to find this out.

Now we have be stung with a £3,200 bill to reinforce the wall and rplace joists etc.

Insurers say not their problem as this was pre-existing.

My question is - is the freeholder repsonsible for this wall? i know we are repsonsbile for the plaster etc but I feel we are paying for a job that definitely beenfits upstairs...so at least should be half...however the more I have been lookign into it I'm thinking the freeholder is responsible for the fabric of teh building- am I correct?

it further maddens me taht she has contacted me saying she has a few cracks as they wall was reinfirced last week- I believe she wants me to pay..which i think is completely out of the question seeing as I am paying for the building to essentially survive - theer would have been big problems if this was nto addressed.

I do get on with this woman but I feel we are being taken advantage of. She is going through a divorce and believe she wishes to sellin a few months- I don;t knwo why i am paying to make it more sellable!

My builder believes i should at least ask for an extension of my lease from her for investing money- if not a share of the freehold.

Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks
A

InsideInsurance

From an insurance perspective its straight forward, its defective workmanship and so irrespective when it was done its not going to be covered by any Home/ Buildings insurance.

You may be better off asking in the Property section about your rights as a leaseholder -v- the freeholder though I suspect it is fairly heavily contract driven.

Rossim1985

The poster above is right, this is not an insurance matter but the lease should specify somewhere who has responsibility for the fabric of the building, which should be the freeholder. I'm no expert but I think this sounds like a bill the freeholder should be responsible for. Take the lease to a local solicitor and run it past them.