Lease conditions re. carpeted floors

tizzle6560

Hi all, looking for some advice here -

I own a ground floor flat in a converted Vic town house. My lease agreement states that all rooms other thank kitchen, bathroom must be carpeted with underlay to avoid sound penetration. Not that we have anyone below us anyway but thats what it says.

The flat above me has cheap wooden flooring throughout and we hear everything. I have raised this with both the leaseholder and our property's management company. The owner says he bought the flat 'as is' when it was first converted and that wooden floors were laid throughout so he doesnt think he is in breach per se.

My question therefore is - if his lease also dictates that the floors must be carpeted (TBC), is he in fact, in breach of his lease or can he simply say that he bought it like that so it is not his fault.

I'd like to think that regardless of how it was when he first bought it, he/ his lawyer should have queried the discrepancy in what the lease says vs what flooring was laid down.

Can the management company force him to make the necessary changes if he is in fact in breach of his lease?

Many thanks.

economic

tizzle6560 wrote: »

Hi all, looking for some advice here -

I own a ground floor flat in a converted Vic town house. My lease agreement states that all rooms other thank kitchen, bathroom must be carpeted with underlay to avoid sound penetration. Not that we have anyone below us anyway but thats what it says.

The flat above me has cheap wooden flooring throughout and we hear everything. I have raised this with both the leaseholder and our property's management company. The owner says he bought the flat 'as is' when it was first converted and that wooden floors were laid throughout so he doesnt think he is in breach per se.

My question therefore is - if his lease also dictates that the floors must be carpeted (TBC), is he in fact, in breach of his lease or can he simply say that he bought it like that so it is not his fault.

I'd like to think that regardless of how it was when he first bought it, he/ his lawyer should have queried the discrepancy in what the lease says vs what flooring was laid down.

Can the management company force him to make the necessary changes if he is in fact in breach of his lease?

Many thanks.

the owner is in breach of the lease regardless of whether he bought it like that or not. you can definately enforce him to change the flooring. how to do this maybe a bit complicated and painful so i cant advice there.

eddddy

Typically, your lease will have a "Mutual Enforceability Covenant".

This means that you can insist that your freeholder enforces covenants in the leases of other leaseholders.

But your lease may say you have to cover the freeholder's costs in doing this (but hopefully that will just be one or two letters).

If the wooden floors are a breach of a covenant in the lease, it doesn't matter whether the current or previous leaseholder laid them.



But obviously, this won't do much for good relations with your neighbour.

TBagpuss

Yes, he is in breach. He will have had a copy of the lease when he bought so he could have insisted on his seller sorting it out , or could have negotiated a price reduction to reflect the cost of carpeting.

You should be able to get the freeholder to enforce on your behalf but unfortunately it won'tdo a lot for your relationship with your neighbour!

economic

TBagpuss wrote: »

Yes, he is in breach. He will have had a copy of the lease when he bought so he could have insisted on his seller sorting it out , or could have negotiated a price reduction to reflect the cost of carpeting.

You should be able to get the freeholder to enforce on your behalf but unfortunately it won'tdo a lot for your relationship with your neighbour!

yep, damned if you do damned if you dont. i would never buy flat underneath another flat for this reason. even with carpets you can hear noise sometimes. soundproofing helps a lot but since the lease doesnt require this then your out of luck if you can still hear noise after carpets have been fitted.

tizzle6560

economic wrote: »

yep, damned if you do damned if you dont. i would never buy flat underneath another flat for this reason. even with carpets you can hear noise sometimes. soundproofing helps a lot but since the lease doesnt require this then your out of luck if you can still hear noise after carpets have been fitted.

TBH the leaseholder does not live there, and simply rents it out on the cheap. I'm not overly fussed by the relationship with him, but I would imagine he would like to keep this as amicable as possible, as he is interested in buying the freehold and so would need to keep me on side.

On that note, if we do buy the freehold, can I and the 3rd leaseholder who would be involved, still enforce what is in our lease agreements?

Thanks

G_M

if a leaseholder breaches the lease, other leaseholders can force the freeholder to enforce.

Irrespective of who the freeholder is (ie even if it's the same person as the leaseholder who's in breach).

See also

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

Norman_Castle

tizzle6560 wrote: »

TBH the leaseholder does not live there, and simply rents it out on the cheap.

If he rents it out cheaply he's likely to replace the laminate with cheap carpet. I would consider offering to pay for or towards good quality, thick underlay. You shouldn't have to but if you expect to live there for years a few hundred pounds reducing the noise as much as possible would be worthwhile.

tizzle6560

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If he rents it out cheaply he's likely to replace the laminate with cheap carpet. I would consider offering to pay for or towards good quality, thick underlay. You shouldn't have to but if you expect to live there for years a few hundred pounds reducing the noise as much as possible would be worthwhile.

TBH it's more just the sound of chairs and other furniture scraping against the wooden floor so even cheap carpet would resolve that. But yes granted some decent underlay wouldn't go amiss either.

economic

Norman_Castle wrote: »

If he rents it out cheaply he's likely to replace the laminate with cheap carpet. I would consider offering to pay for or towards good quality, thick underlay. You shouldn't have to but if you expect to live there for years a few hundred pounds reducing the noise as much as possible would be worthwhile.

exactly why i would never buy a flat underneath another

tizzle6560

economic wrote: »

exactly why i would never buy a flat underneath another

Yep, heard you the first time. I wanted a flat with a private garden for my dog, my veg patch and a place to entertain in the Summer, so we all have our own preferences.