Ex housing association property liable for service charges?

lost_in_translation_2

G_M wrote: »

How can we answer your questions without access to the information?

If there is a lease - read it!

If there are covenants - read them!

If you don't understand them, ask either your solicitor, or quote them here, in full, and we'll try to explain.

But it is not unusual for there to be an obligation to pay towards communal facilities.

There is no lease. We are freeholders. There are covenants but all it says is my title deed is that restrictive covenants exist. I would LOVE to read them by as I said in my post I am unsure of which land registry documents to pay for, what section to look at and what terms/jargon to look out for. if anyone could help me out with that, instead of chewing me out for not knowing the very thing I asked for help on, that would be marvellous.

We dont HAVE a solicitor. We used an online conveyancer (worst decision ever but young and poor doesnt always lead to the beat decision making) and they were abysmal. I will not be giving them another penny. I anticipate we will seek legal advice shortly but I was hoping to have established which documents we need from the land registry in order to verify where we stand as we can then purchase those direct, at cost price, rather than pay a solicitor to do it for us and can concentrate our very limited funds on paying for their advice.

tomtontom

Search for your property on the LR site and come back and tell us what documents are available, we can then suggest if any may help you. Do you not have a bundle of documents from when you purchased?

lost_in_translation_2

tomtontom wrote: »

Search for your property on the LR site and come back and tell us what documents are available, we can then suggest if any may help you. Do you not have a bundle of documents from when you purchased?

Yes, I have all the documents from when we purchased and the only one with any relevance is a copy of the title register.

On there it says:

A: Property Register

1 - details of the freehold boundaries

2 - The conveyance dated xxxx refered to in the charges register was made pursuant to part V of the Housing Act 1985 and the land has the benefit of and is subject to such easements as are granted and reserved in the said Deed and the easements and rights specified in paragraph 2 of schedule 6 of said act.

3 - the Conveyance dated xxxx refered to above contains provisions as to light or air and boundary structures.

B: Propriertorship Register

Title absolute

1 - proprietors names and address (us)

2 - the price we paid

3 - The transfer to the proprietor contains a covenant to observe and perform the covenants refered to in the charges register and of indemnity in respect thereof.

C: Charges Register

1 - A conveyance of the land in this title dated xxxx made between (1) xxx housing associations and (2) names of original purchasers contains restrictive covenants

2 - Registered charge dated in our purchase date (I assume that's our mortgage)

3 - Proprietor: our original mortgage lender.

That's it. I'm assuming the 'restrictive covenants' possibly covers the service charge and/or any restrictions on what we can do but don't know where to look for more info. On the land registry site I can only access the Title register (which we have) the title plan (which we bought a few years ago but only shows boundaries) and flood risk info (which I assume is irrelevant). On landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk I can purchase the title deeds for £29.95 which it states often contains 'considerable detail of the covenants, easements and other matters affecting the property' so I assume this is what we want?

Nobbie1967

lost_in_translation wrote: »

Yes, I have all the documents from when we purchased and the only one with any relevance is a copy of the title register.

On there it says:

A: Property Register

1 - details of the freehold boundaries

2 - The conveyance dated xxxx refered to in the charges register was made pursuant to part V of the Housing Act 1985 and the land has the benefit of and is subject to such easements as are granted and reserved in the said Deed and the easements and rights specified in paragraph 2 of schedule 6 of said act.

3 - the Conveyance dated xxxx refered to above contains provisions as to light or air and boundary structures.

B: Propriertorship Register

Title absolute

1 - proprietors names and address (us)

2 - the price we paid

3 - The transfer to the proprietor contains a covenant to observe and perform the covenants refered to in the charges register and of indemnity in respect thereof.

C: Charges Register

1 - A conveyance of the land in this title dated xxxx made between (1) xxx housing associations and (2) names of original purchasers contains restrictive covenants

2 - Registered charge dated in our purchase date (I assume that's our mortgage)

3 - Proprietor: our original mortgage lender.

That's it. I'm assuming the 'restrictive covenants' possibly covers the service charge and/or any restrictions on what we can do but don't know where to look for more info. On the land registry site I can only access the Title register (which we have) the title plan (which we bought a few years ago but only shows boundaries) and flood risk info (which I assume is irrelevant). On landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk I can purchase the title deeds for £29.95 which it states often contains 'considerable detail of the covenants, easements and other matters affecting the property' so I assume this is what we want?

Yes, it is

davidmcn

lost_in_translation wrote: »

On landregistry-titledeeds.co.uk I can purchase the title deeds for £29.95 which it states often contains 'considerable detail of the covenants, easements and other matters affecting the property' so I assume this is what we want?

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

Yes, it is

But you don't want to buy it from that rip-off site, you want to get it directly from the Land Registry.

lost_in_translation_2

davidmcn wrote: »

But you don't want to buy it from that rip-off site, you want to get it
directly from the Land Registry.

Thanks, but how?! On their site it only lists the title register, title plan and flood info as available copies?

Scrap that, just poked around and found out how to request copies. Thanks for the heads up!

No, actually, scrap that - I've found out how to apply but what on earth do I apply for? There's several categories, none of which mention covenants!

marksoton

Not much help now but you're not kidding your conveyancers were poor.

Restrictive covenants on a freehold should have been a big red flashing light. With an extremely loud siren to go with it!

lost_in_translation_2

marksoton wrote: »

Not much help now but you're not kidding your conveyancers were poor.

Restrictive covenants on a freehold should have been a big red flashing light. With an extremely loud siren to go with it!

Oh, they were shocking. Which is precisely why I have no intention whatsoever of approaching them for advice. My concern now is what happens when we come to sell.....

AdrianC

You have a freehold on your property. The covenants will almost certainly include a responsibility to contribute - via the sinking fund and service charge - to the maintenance of the common areas of the estate or development the property is on.

Three quid to the LR's website will give you all you need.

loubel

1 - A conveyance of the land in this title dated xxxx made between (1) xxx housing associations and (2) names of original purchasers contains restrictive covenantscovenants

This is what you need to buy a copy of, although your solicitor should have sent you a copy when you purchased with a report explaining the important bits. Is it possible you still have this somewhere in your paperwork?

However it is likely to just say that you are responsible for paying a fair contribution to the shared estate costs. You will need to discuss with the HA if you believe there are discrepancies in the accounts they are sending you.