Roof replacement on leasehold flat

arceye

Can anyone offer any good advice, my flat is 13 years old and six months ago property management company informed that the roof which has been leaking in to some top floor flat (40+ flats, approx 11 top floor flats), management company have a surveyor report and they estimate approx £170,000 for new roof shared between all flats in development.
Management company have said they cannot pursue building company of development and NHBC only paid £9k for repairs to defects not defective roof.
Management company charging leaseholders approx £3500 over 2 years for roof to be replaced in 2019 (summer) taking approx £900 ever 6 months but no section 20 consultation is to take place until end of 2018, management company claiming this money can be recovered under lease contract under "the six schedule - maintenance expenses". Is this their right and can this be enforced without section 20 consultation as this is "Major Works"?
Any Advice would be grateful.:(

eddddy

It sounds like the management company are building up a sinking fund.

You need to read the lease (6th schedule??) to see if that's allowed.

Even if it's not allowed by the lease, instead of paying £900 every 6 months, you'd have to eventually pay the lump sum of about £3.5k instead.

It probably makes sense to do the section 20 consultation shortly before the work is done. If it's done now, the roof may get worse and/or repair costs might rise before the repairs are done.

hazyjo

A whole new roof after 13 years?! Is it a flat roof? Am guessing it must be with that number of flats below. Am surprised your solicitor didn't point out its lifespan and future costs (or maybe they did).


Does it have a lift too? If I were you, even once these works have taken place, I'd make sure I saved into a separate account regularly as this is likely to be an expensive flat...

teneighty

arceye wrote: »

Can anyone offer any good advice, my flat is 13 years old and six months ago property management company informed that the roof which has been leaking in to some top floor flat (40+ flats, approx 11 top floor flats), management company have a surveyor report and they estimate approx £170,000 for new roof shared between all flats in development.
Management company have said they cannot pursue building company of development and NHBC only paid £9k for repairs to defects not defective roof.
Management company charging leaseholders approx £3500 over 2 years for roof to be replaced in 2019 (summer) taking approx £900 ever 6 months but no section 20 consultation is to take place until end of 2018, management cmeompany claiming this money can be recovered under lease contract under "the six schedule - maintenance expenses". Is this their right and can this be enforced without section 20 consultation as this is "Major Works"?
Any Advice would be grateful.:(

If the roof has failed after just 13 years I assume it is a latent defect and not that the roof was constructed using very short term materials.

Accordingly the freeholder/management company could well still have a claim against the builder. I wonder if this is a new build development and the freeholder and management company has a very close association with the original builder which is why they are reluctant to press the claim? With 40 flats I would have thought it was worth your while clubbing together to get some legal advice on Latent Defects.

shortcrust

hazyjo wrote: »

A whole new roof after 13 years?! Is it a flat roof? Am guessing it must be with that number of flats below. Am surprised your solicitor didn't point out its lifespan and future costs (or maybe they did).


Does it have a lift too? If I were you, even once these works have taken place, I'd make sure I saved into a separate account regularly as this is likely to be an expensive flat...

Surely that would be the surveyor's job rather than the conveyancer. How would the solicitor know?

LEJC

new build or refurbishment of existing older property to create a re development?
If it was a redevelopment then the roof could be substantially older than the 13 years since your flat was commissioned.

We have a similar issue with a property....roof was refurbished as part of a development just under 10 years ago and is now failing ....defects policy is currently deciding if it will replace roof or just again attempt a patch in on the failing areas.

Either way if it is a flat roof that is in place in your property then a sink fund will be a good thing to establish going forward as the life span isnt huge on these types of roof coverings.