Taking the previous home owners to court

Cakeguts

You have bought a flat. Flats have to have management companies so that repairs to the whole building can be arranged. If the roof needs to be repaired the cost will be split between all the leaseholders. This is totally normal. If you buy a flat you not only pay a service charge but you also have to pay your portion of any repairs to the building. This is all totally normal. It would be no different if you had lived there for 5 years and the roof needed repairing. Home ownership is expensive. You have to pay for maintenance. If you were renting this flat your landlord would be the one to pay this bill not you. People assume that buying a house or flat is going to automatically be cheaper than renting. Sometimes it is sometimes it isn't.

The fact that the neighbours are all arguing about the cost of the roof repairs doesn't change the fact that the roof needs repairing and you will all have to pay something towards that repair. Next year it could be something else that needs repairing.

eddddy

Are you saying that the seller gave a misleading answer to this question on the TA7 Leashold Information Form?

5.5 Does the seller know of any expense (e.g. the cost of redecoration of outside or communal areas not usually incurred annually) likely to be shown in the service charge accounts within the next three years? If Yes, please give details:

And/or, the seller gave a misleading answers to these questions on the TA6 Property Information Form?

2.1 Have there been any disputes or complaints regarding this property or a property nearby? If Yes, please give details:

2.2 Is the seller aware of anything which might lead to a dispute about the property or a property nearby? If Yes, please give details:

If you believe the answers were misleading, and you have suffered a loss as a result (e.g. your contribution to the costs of the roof repair) - you can claim damages from the seller.

Since it sounds like it's about £1000, you could do it through the small claims court. (It wouldn't be worth employing a solicitor.)

Ask your solicitor for contact details for the seller.

sheff6107

Exactly. It all depends on the TA6 form

AnotherJoe

biggysmalls wrote: »

Hello,

Apologies for the long winded message in advance...

In March 2015 the previous owners of my flat put it up for sale, declaring that there were no ongoing disputes between the neighbours (20 flats in total).

I very much doubt they said that. How would they know if there was a dispute between a couple of adjacent flat owners over say loud music or similar? There would know if they had a dispute with any other flat owners, but in any case this doesn't seem to be a dispute between flat owners, it seems to be a case of a maintenance bill, and any dispute would be between flat owners and the management company.

Presumably at that time, unless they lied, they were not aware of any impending bills which is not the same as a dispute between flat owners. (I imagine any dispute would have been, top floor owner getting leaks and eventually forcing mgmt co to fix roof possibly against wishes of downstairs flat owners)

Even if the previous owners were aware of a potential impending bill, since it looks like its under £1,000 you are basically stuffed because the costs of proving they were at fault and getting compensation even in the unlikely event you could prove it, would seem out of all proportion.

Let it go.

Yep just seen post 13, its the point 5.5, were they aware of impending bills. If you can show thats the case (ask neighbours for any letters about costs and when they were issued), small claims court is your only realistic option.

biggysmalls

I appreciate the response.

Yes Eddddy you're bang on with that TA6 PIF, the fact of the matter is that they must have been aware of this arising issue regarding a neighbouring flat and its repair costs but they answered 'no' on the form.

It appears that the responsibility of the roof repairs was being debated between the flat owner and the management firm for some time which resulted in a lot of internal damage to the flat. It's still in debate but the cost is rising, the quotes for complete repair so far are between 20 and 25 grand (approx) so I think the bill for myself will be around a grand.

I will look to going down the small claims route.

Rosemary7391

I'm not sure what makes this a dispute as opposed to the normal repair process of finding a problem, figuring out who is responsible and getting it fixed? Sounds like it's taking a while, but that might just be because the nature of the problem was hard to track down? If they lied about any outstanding repairs then that's different, but you'd have to check the wording very carefully, to see if it covers the situation at the stage it was said.