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Charges from freeholder
cha003
Posts: 2 Newbie
Dear all,
We have recently moved back into our flat (we're leaseholders) after 14 months of repairs after a major roof/flooding incident. Our freeholder did nothing but obstruct the progress of the works in that time (both his insurers and his insurer's project managers have told us this) and we have had to organise everything on our own, from finding alternative accommodation, to proving that we need reimbursement for extra council tax payments, bills, travel, storage, etc, to having to take (unpaid) days off work to be present on site for inspections and workmen.
Our freeholder is now pressing us for building insurance and the usual service charges for while we were out of the property and it was uninhabitable, together with over £2,000 for "his time" in dealing with the insurance claim. This seems incredibly unreasonable to us, as we're already several thousand pounds out of pocket, despite the insurance paying for the majority of our costs.
What do other people think? Will it all depend on what our lease says? I have ordered a new copy of our lease from the Land Registry as ours was destroyed (along with everything else we possessed) when the roof came off ...
Any advice/help would be very much appreciated.
Helen
We have recently moved back into our flat (we're leaseholders) after 14 months of repairs after a major roof/flooding incident. Our freeholder did nothing but obstruct the progress of the works in that time (both his insurers and his insurer's project managers have told us this) and we have had to organise everything on our own, from finding alternative accommodation, to proving that we need reimbursement for extra council tax payments, bills, travel, storage, etc, to having to take (unpaid) days off work to be present on site for inspections and workmen.
Our freeholder is now pressing us for building insurance and the usual service charges for while we were out of the property and it was uninhabitable, together with over £2,000 for "his time" in dealing with the insurance claim. This seems incredibly unreasonable to us, as we're already several thousand pounds out of pocket, despite the insurance paying for the majority of our costs.
What do other people think? Will it all depend on what our lease says? I have ordered a new copy of our lease from the Land Registry as ours was destroyed (along with everything else we possessed) when the roof came off ...
Any advice/help would be very much appreciated.
Helen
0
Comments
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Who having known the diamond will concern himself with glass?
Rudyard Kipling0 -
The freeholder here is a council and a fire not flooding is involved, but the information may be applicable anyway:
"You still have to pay your service charges if you are unable to live in your property. Payments for the building insurance are due so that you can make a claim for fire damage or other relevant costs covered by the policy. Services to the block/estate are still chargeable under the terms of your lease. "
https://camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/housing/council-tenants-and-leaseholders/homeownership/frequently-asked-questions/there-was-a-fire-at-my-property-block-and-it-was-uninhabitable--i-should-not-be-liable-for-service-charges-during-the-period-i-could-not-live-in-the-property/Who having known the diamond will concern himself with glass?
Rudyard Kipling0 -
I didn't know about that one, so thank you for that.
Any other advice gratefully accepted!0
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