freeholder demanding money for poorly carried out work

Ryanf1

Hi all just after some opinions and advise.

Basically the freeholder wanting to resurface the driveway and make the garden smaller.
The drive way we were told we have to pay towards as it was essential maintenance. The garden as it is his we had no say in so therefor he is responsible for it and we lost of of the garden. at the same time the surrounding walls were taken down and replaced with fence.

6 months later the drive way is done but a terrible job has been done, it is uneven and breaking as already and one of the spaces cant be used, the fence has a massive, gap in it to the neighbours and the garden has a 1ft drop in it all dug up.

I paid my share (25%, the other two flats paid 15%) for the drive way back in august/septembe.
now the work has apparently been completed the freeholder wants more money and money for the fence because they didnt budget enough for it.

the freeholder stupidly paid the builders, also his friend up front and now he can't get the builders to re do and finish the work. He also never got more than one quote for the work, took longer than stated and wants money for work which hasnt been completed.

Any views?
Many thanks

economic

Ryanf1 wrote: »

Hi all just after some opinions and advise.

Basically the freeholder wanting to resurface the driveway and make the garden smaller.
The drive way we were told we have to pay towards as it was essential maintenance. The garden as it is his we had no say in so therefor he is responsible for it and we lost of of the garden. at the same time the surrounding walls were taken down and replaced with fence.

6 months later the drive way is done but a terrible job has been done, it is uneven and breaking as already and one of the spaces cant be used, the fence has a massive, gap in it to the neighbours and the garden has a 1ft drop in it all dug up.

I paid my share (25%, the other two flats paid 15%) for the drive way back in august/septembe.
now the work has apparently been completed the freeholder wants more money and money for the fence because they didnt budget enough for it.

the freeholder stupidly paid the builders, also his friend up front and now he can't get the builders to re do and finish the work. He also never got more than one quote for the work, took longer than stated and wants money for work which hasnt been completed.

Any views?
Many thanks

sounds like a dodgy freeholder trying to scam you for money or not doing things right. how much did it actually cost? i cant remember hiw much but above a certain amount he has to serve an official notice to you. if he hasnt done this then you dont have to pay anything or shouldnt have paid anything.

welome to the world of leasehold where if you have a bad freeholder/manager, then you get screwed. nothing much can be done about it im afraid.

G_M

How much was the cost for the driveway?
How much for the garden?
I assume you are only being charged for the drive?
Why did you not insist on seeing 3 quotes for the work?
What does you lease plan show you have rights to? If the area has been altered, you need to demand it is re-instated. Apart from anything else, when you sell, your buyer will query the difference between the actual drive/garden area and what the Plan shows.

And yes - I believe it's £250 per person above which a S20 Notice is required.

Search on http://www.lease-advice.org/ for details.

[Deleted User]

It doesnt sound like your Freeholder has a grasp on the necessary processes when works are required.

Given the informality of things I think it would be hard for him to insist you pay anything else if you decided not to.

Out of interest why is your percentage contribution higher than the other flats normally its split equally.

As an aside my Freeholder took me to court for payment when they were demanding payment for works that hadnt been done and they won. The works weren't done, they had no receipts or invoices, confirmed in writing the works werent done and still they won.

You will learn that Leasehold is a very bad idea and all the platutudes set up to assist Leasholders ie Lease are not on the side of Leaseholders. They are in the hands of the big property players who earn an awful lot of money on the back of Leaseholders misery.