Shared freeholder does not live in the address on the freehold

Mr_8o8

I'm not sure what to look for when googling this...

Sorry if it is long

Our freehold is shared by 4 people.

One of the freeholders, the flat below me is un-contactable.

Well... the 'tenant' in the flat is the freeholders niece, and she refused to give me the freeholders contact details.

We have had to hand the niece letters to pass onto the owner! We know she has received them as she did call us one day... but we stupidly forgot to ask for her details :mad:. We had to give up trying to contact her as the niece eventually said to us "I am not your @!$"@€ postman"....... and that was that. We didn't want to fall out too much.

The reason we needed to contact her was we had to repair a huge leak in the roof, we couldn't wait until we made contact, so went ahead with the work. We wanted her to pay her half. She didn't. In our only phone call we came to a deal where she'd sort out the hole in the render left by the repairs instead, (which probably cost her about 5% of what we paid looking at it...)

Now, another one of the freeholders is selling and is having problems transferring the freehold due to the niece not passing on details again. I told the seller that this particular freeholder is not living there but letting out the flat and we've had all kinds of problems contacting too. They were also asking for a copy of my buildings insurance which now makes me wonder if downstairs even has!

Would I be right in thinking this arrangement is not entirely legitimate. What kind of problems could it cause. How can I go about getting the contact address? Should my solicitor have picked this up when we bought the flat too? If I was having a bad day, which authority could I inform?

Thanks for your help, I'm worried anymore problems with the building could result in me out of pocket again. Winter is coming....

skintpaul

Would the Land registry have details?

Or maybe ask your insurer?

Can't hurt to put feelers out, on twitter, facebook too..

HouseBuyer77

How is the freehold shared? I believe a common setup is a holding company owns the freeholder and then the ownership of this is shared. You can check the directors of a registered company online, they may be one of them.

Alternatively if no holding company is used their contact details will be available via the title deed for the freehold from the land registry.

Mr_8o8

Oh yes! We had done that. The Land Registry (for a fee) told us that they were living in.... the flat below still!

They did also tell us who their mortgage was held tho. So we wrote to them but unfortunately we didn't hear anything back. I may dig this letter out again and try again.

We did this 3 years ago when we purchased the property, so it's a bit hazy, sorry.

Thanks again.

eddddy

There is no problem with the joint freeholder not living in the property.

But obviously, there is a problem in the joint freeholder is 'disinterested' in maintaining the property.


Others may have other suggestions, but one route you could investigate to resolve this:

(Each of the 4 of you will be both a leaseholder and a joint freeholder, but you have to 'wear different hats' for different purposes.)

- The freeholders are not managing the building effectively (delayed roof repairs, possibly failing to insure etc)

- So you, as a leaseholder, want to exercise your right to appoint new management. (i.e. take management responsibilities away from the joint freeholders.)


The new management company would then be responsible for getting repairs done, insuring the building etc. (And I believe that it may be possible for the new management company to be run by the 3 'interested' leaseholders - effectively freezing out the 4th 'disinterested' leaseholder.)

The new mgmt co would still have the problem of getting the 4th leaseholder to pay her share, but they would be in a much stronger position to take legal action against her, if she didn't pay.



see:
http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/print_faq.asp?section=7
http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=18#14

Guest101

I dont see what you think is illegal about the owner not living there.

Mr_8o8

Sorry, I don't think that part is illegal, that is an annoyance as I can't contact them if anything goes wrong. It also seems to be holding up another one of the freeholders sale, i don't want to be in their shoes in 3 years or 4 years time.

What I mean by not being legitimate was it seems as tho owner is a landlord and trying their best not to tell anyone.

HouseBuyer77

Presumably you have their full name at least? A little googling or searching around linked in/facebook may result in further info.

AlexMac

Edddy is correct in saying that it's usually perfectly OK for a leaseholder to rent out a flat, whether to a relative or to a stranger, unless the lease prohibits this, which is extremely unlikely to be the case. Most shared freeholds I've had have had, at most, a prohibition on short lets under 6 months (i.e. no 'holiday lets' ) but have been OK with assured shortholds of 6 months plus.

His suggestion about a Company is good, but if you look at your lease (and the other two 'friendly' leaseholders' ones) I'd be extremely surprised if it doesn't already prescribe how the freehold is to be owned; in fact I'd think it unusual if it wasn't through some kind on Company structure. Similarly, the leases should specify what the arrangements are for collective management, maintenance and lighting of any common areas, insurances and funding of these.

All my past freeholds were owned by a non-profit Company whose 'members' or 'directors' were comprised of the leaseholders; this was spelt out in the lease together with service charges and how repair costs were to be funded; either on an even split, or, if flats were of different sizes, what the % share formula was.

If the lease is silent on all this, your solicitor should have given you clear warning at the time you bought that this could be a problem down the line.

Whether or not there is a clear Company structure, you (the 3 leaseholders) ought to be billing the absent partner (in writing to the only address you have; the flat) for their fair share if insurances, repairs, etc, and warning them that unpaid debts will stay on record up to the time they ever wish to sell...

... in which case the debts will come back to bite them, as the first thing their buyer's solicitor will do is to ask the freeholder (whoever they are) for replies to standard enquiries including whether all service charge or maintenence and insurance payments are up to date.

As your neighbour is selling, and assuming they have a solicitor on the case, maybe you could use this as a test case, even if it meant a few quid more for shared legal advice. I'd be asking
- who the freeholder is and what the management or company structure is
- if this is unclear or incomplete, how you can fix it and at what cost
- how you can press the recalcitrant leaseholder to cough up within the terms of the lease
- what legal sanctions you have if they refuse?

Best wishes

lonestar1

letter to missing freeholder saying congratulations youve won a prize please contact us on (relevant phone number) to arrange delivery, when they ring explain that their niece is refusing to forward letters and get their contact details

G_M

How is the freehold held? Is it a company with the 4 of you as shareholders/directors?

What is the constitiution? Normally a simple majority can make decisions for the company, so 3 of you, as joint shareholders of the freehold, could decide to fix the roof.

You then write to each of the 4 leaseholders, informing them of the cost.

If one of the leaseholders fails to pay, you enforce payment in the usual way, via court action based on the obligations contained within the lease.

If the address provided is the address of the flat (irrespective of who actually lives there) then that is where you write with all correspondance. (if niece fails to forward it that's not your problem). Of course it should be posted (with proof of posting - not recorded delivery), not hand delivered.