Share of freehold: maintenance questions

galathea

Hi, I am seeking for an advice in the following situation. We own a flat which is a leasehold with a share of freehold. There are 4 flats in the building including ours. The freehold management is arranged in the form of the company where we are all directors.

Our flat is entered directly from the street, while 3 other flats have their own entrance with shared stairs, loft etc. From the beginning we were requested to pay for the maintenance of these areas, including electricity, changing their external door etc because they define these as "communal areas". As we were new to the process and didn't want to spoil the relationship with new neighbors we agreed to this arrangement. We also paid for the roof repairs etc even though we are on the ground floor.

Recently, we encountered the following problem. Flats want to set up CCTV monitoring because there was an attempt of break in, but...they are only willing to pay for the cameras covering their part of the building but not our part of the building or our entrance. Our entrance also requires some refurbishment now. I don't understand why we are supposed to pay for their door replacement and CCTV but they are not paying for our part of the building.

Our leasehold management agreement is rubbish (very vague and don't cover essentials like this) and we wanted to rewrite it several times. How you usually approach setting up a new leasehold agreement? Do we need to hire solicitors? Can we argue since we don't have access to "communal facilities" and they are reserved to the exclusive use of other flats, these are by nature not "common facilities" and we should not pay for those.

moneyistooshorttomention

Sounds like time to write them a letter stating words to the effect of "You can't have your cake and eat it" - though much more suitably phrased than that. More along the lines of "You will note that we paid £x on y date towards facilities we do not have the benefit of - eg front door, etc - as these were defined as being 'communal areas'. Accordingly the facilities the other flats do not have the benefit of are also 'communal areas' and we will therefore look to the other leaseholders to contribute towards the cost of this".

Either all communal areas are to be defined as "communal areas" (and hence you paying towards their front door etc) or none are.

You've paid towards theirs and therefore they should pay towards yours.

As I understand it - a roof is a different matter though and all parties pay towards that. After all - damp would work its way down through the various levels of the building if it hadn't been done.

First thing though being - look out your paperwork and see exactly what is stated as being "communal areas".

Also there is an organisation (can't recall name) that flat leaseholders such as yourselves can contact with queries. Do so...

NeilCr

I can see that your door is your door and your responsibility. I am assuming that you are not paying towards the doors to other individual flats - just the outside door (which would be communal - if not for you)

I can also see that you should pay for the roof

It does seem wrong that you have to pay towards the communal areas when you have no use of them. Did you not get any paperwork when you bought the flat. I got a very comprehensive set of papers detailing the service charges and what they were for when I moved in - from my solicitor

If you didn't may be worth a conversation with the solicitor who did the conveyancing

anselld

Your lease should have a schedule of what things are chargeable and what the apportionment percentage is to each flat.

Don't pay for anything that is not stated.

The lease can be re-written if all four freeholders agree to do so. However if it is not rewritten and you your dispute cannot be agreed amicably then you would need to take it to the First Tier Tribunal.

Hoploz

CCTV is nothing to do with communal parts. It's a system some people have said they would like. If it doesn't cover your entrance then you shouldn't contribute. If they can arrange for it to cover your entrance then you should contribute if you want the benefit.

Building structure on the other hand is something you do need to pay towards. Roof, walls, exterior decorating, all this is for everybody's benefit.

Decorating interior common parts you don't use should have been excluded on your lease agreement but if what you've signed does not allow for this then you will have to pay it. I have a similar flat and we pay less as we have our own front door so don't pay towards cleaning of communal areas etc - it's written in to our lease.

You will have to pay as directed in your lease .... But CCTV is not included in this presumably.

Chapuys

If your entrance is an actual front door, and not a communal hall area then your door, then you entrance will not come under the repair aspect as it goes directly into your flat. CCTV on the other hand is building security and should cover all entrances into the building. The roof is everyones because you need a roof on your building or you may get a little wet, even on the ground floor (after time).

As others have stated, check your management agreement. I doubt it would say much about CCTV so you should have grounds to negotiate. Especially if it is over 1 camera.

Norman_Castle

I would use the current cctv exclusion as a starting point to re write the lease.

https://www.lease-advice.org/

galathea

Thank you everyone. Will take a look at the references provided.
The leasehold agreement doesn't define anything at specific level, it's like, "freehold company is responsible for the maintenance of the common areas and exterior of the building" but what common areas are or what constitutes "exterior", for example, whether this includes windows is not defined. We all pay equal service charges to the account of the freehold company and that's it. So, they plan to take money out of the common account to pay for CCTV around their entrance but don't want to pay for cameras around ours. Rewriting a leasehold agreement would require additional expenditures, so I don't expect them to agree easily to this. I contributed towards roof and any external work without any complaints. But just for the sake of playing devils advocate if leaking roof will eventually affect the entire building and hence we need to pay for it, why we were required to pay for the damproofing of our basement on our own - you can use the same logic that the damp will affect everyone eventually. Anyway, this is hard to argue. I want, at least, some items written of our expenditures which we clearly don't use and share the same benefits as everyone regarding the safety. Our solicitors and surveyor warned me regarding the potential issues of this form of ownership. But I really liked the flat and made of mistake of emotional buy

eddddy

Your lease will say what the freeholder is responsible for maintaining, and how the costs are divided between the flats.

Installing CCTV is not maintenance, it is an improvement. Therefore, it's unlikely that you can be forced to contribute to the cost, if you don't want to.

NeilCr

There's some general guidance here

http://percyshort.co.uk/tenant-owned-private-limited-companies/

It sounds like there isn't a management company involved - more that you pay into a general pot and the directors (are there any?) decide where to spend the money. If that is so that is rather problematic.

Do you see accounts/a budget?

Norman_Castle

Is this a right to manage freehold which is being managed by one or more of the other leaseholders?