Selling a flat with no maintenance arangement

economic

OP - as I said unless you are desperate to sell (in which case you will almost certainly be taking a hit from what it looks like), you should try this:


http://www.lease-advice.org/faq/what-is-the-procedure-for-the-appointment-of-a-manager/


wont be quick, but it looks like you have enough issues with the management of the building that you will likely win. you should then get a management company appointed. you don't need to have any agreement with any other leaseholder.

westernpromise

Hi Ginger Chocolate

You do need proper legal advice. But your situation may be commoner than you think.

A few years ago I owned a flat in a similar situation - a church hall converted to eight flats. We only ever heard once a year from the "management company", and that was to collect everyone's share of the buildings insurance, which they were tasked with organising. They did no other maintenance - there wasn't a lot to maintain, but there was a bit of exterior painting and what not that should have been done.

One year they flat out forgot to insure the building, so we contacted lawyers and got them removed (they didn't put up a fight but leaving us uninsured was a huge dereliction). This was basically two of us who were active and the other six just went along with it. We then appointed a local estate agent to do the management and we all lived happily ever after.

More recently, I was in a flat that was one of two in a terrace, one flat per floor. Here too the freeholder did nothing apart from send us an annual bill for insurance. In this case we exercised our right to buy the freehold, and took over the maintenance. We also found she had been ripping us off for years for the insurance - getting a sensible price for that pretty much recouped what buying the freehold cost.

If your neighbours are sluggards who CBA to do anything, I would consider enlisting whomever you can in the building to go down the buy-the-freehold route. There needs to be more than 80 years left on the lease, two-thirds of you need to agree (so, you plus three others), you need to establish a limited company to own it, and the freeholder then must sell. The price is just the net present value of the ground rents, which will be a few thousand max.

Once you own the freehold, with yourselves appointed directors obviously, you can sort out the maintenance mess, and if this is all the work and money of a few of you, you can recoup this by remunerating yourselves.

It's not just buyers who are put off by shambolic maintenance - it's lenders too. Definitely worth fixing.

ginger_chocolate

We are thinking about trying to contact the freeholder direct and request that they replace the current 'management company' with a local company who will manage and provide maintenance. Does this sound sensible? Buying the freehold has an appeal but unfortunately only 68 years left on the lease....

G_M

ginger_chocolate wrote: »

We are thinking about trying to contact the freeholder direct and request that they replace the current 'management company' with a local company who will manage and provide maintenance. Does this sound sensible? Buying the freehold has an appeal but unfortunately only 68 years left on the lease....

The freeholder cannot appoint a 'management company' to manage and provide maintenance since you said earlier:

The deeds state that the maintenance of communal areas is the collective responsibility of the individual flat owners.

What has the length of your lease got to do with buying the freehold?

ginger_chocolate

G_M wrote: »

The freeholder cannot appoint a 'management company' to manage and provide maintenance since you said earlier:


What has the length of your lease got to do with buying the freehold?

Someone further up the thread said that to buy the freehold you need 80 years left on the lease? This was news to me too - is this incorrect?

The maintenance / management company we approached had a look at the lease and said they would only be able to manage and enforce payments if instructed by the freeholder. They could carry out maintenance on instruction from a residents association, if we were to form one, but they would not be able to enforce payment that way.

I am aware of how ridiculous the whole thing seems.

G_M

http://www.lease-advice.org/faq/how-can-i-buy-the-freehold-of-my-building/

http://www.lease-advice.org/faq/do-i-qualify-for-collective-enfranchisement-under-the-leasehold-reform-housing-and-urban-development-act-1993/

economic

OP - you are missing something crucial in the lease. there mus tbe somewhere where it says how if the management is all screwed up, the freeholder then has to take over (and he then has to appoint a management company). if your lease does not say anything like this, then well your lease is a piece of !!!!!! and your solicitor should never have advised you to buy.

you want to sell so there is absolutely no point buying the freehold - you dont need 80 years, i think its something like 21 years left to buy, but still its not worth the hassle plus if no one is paying the maintenance how the hell are you gonna convince at least 50% of you to buy the freehold together????

also you mention lease is only 68 years. you will find it difficult to find a buyer. there may be a savvy buyer who would buy it but he would want a decent discount off the market price. given this and all these maintenance issues, i would just auction it and see what happens. seems like its something that you need to get rid off asap and move on with your life.

economic

btw expect freehold purchase to take something like 6 months, i heard some taking a year or more!