Landlord wants to stop the lift

Coconut01

how long is left on your tenancy? might be easiest looking for somewhere else.

FBaby

As it's been suggested already, I would speak with the other tenants (at least those on the 3rd floor) and see if they would be prepared to pay extra rent for the retaining of the lift and then offer this to the LL.

Otherwise, probably not much you can do.

SammyJ87

Lol thankyou, I was wondering when the conversation would come back to help me I will try and get the lease to have a read, then come back to you. I will see what the other tenants think of putting money forward, but to be honest even I wouldn't be able to do that realistically, as I'm on maternity leave and already had to get a second job so my partner and I can live (rather than just be able to pay bills and food)so any more money on top rent would be a backward step.
As I said, our LL is a cheap skate and has cut corners to save money in places, so I think it's more "how much money can I save on top" rather than "it's too expensive to run".
My last question, would myself and the other tenants be able to instead of increase the rent, say that we decrease it and put the money left into the maintenance of the lift?

AdrianC

SammyJ87 wrote: »

My last question, would myself and the other tenants be able to instead of increase the rent, say that we decrease it and put the money left into the maintenance of the lift?

Think of your landlord as two different people.

One of him is your landlord. He owns the lease on your flat, and pays the freeholder a service charge.

The other of him is the freeholder. He uses that service charge to pay the maintenance costs of the entire block, including the costs of the lift. Some of those costs are legally required.

I can tell you for a fact that in a not-dissimilar-size development, the service charge is around £100/mo, a very large chunk of which goes to the lift maintenance and support.

It may well be that the lift is nearing the end of its service life, so needs replacing. I don't even want to know what that'd cost, but I'd be surprised if there's change from a couple of grand per flat.

iammumtoone

I would try to have a word with the person who owns their flat, what level are they on?

They might be pleased if the lift is to go as depending on the lease this may they no longer have to pay 1/6th of the maintenance costs. However as you say nobody lives on the ground floor it is in their interests to keep it, their flat will be worth more when they come to sell if there is a lift and it can be used for access to their floor.

AdrianC

iammumtoone wrote: »

...their flat will be worth more when they come to sell if there is a lift...

It may not - the size of the service charge may put potential buyers off.

iammumtoone

AdrianC wrote: »

It may not - the size of the service charge may put potential buyers off.

If the owned flat is on the ground floor yes, but there is no one on the ground floor.

I agree that the OP needs to get a copy of the lease to find out what the owned flats responsibilities are for the lift. It might give a clue as to how they might feel about this.

Of course the LL may have offered the owned flat an incentive to forgo the lift or they may have hoodwinked them in to believing they have the right to do this without question as they own the Freehold. If it were me I would be speaking to them to try to gauge their feeling about it.

iammumtoone

SammyJ87 wrote: »

Hi,
We live in a block of 6 flats, of which the landlord owns 5. Now, as far as I've been told, myself and 4 flats have said we don't want it stopped, and now we have had a message stating he will be stopping the lift at the end of the month.

Sorry I missed this bit. Do you know if the one person that wanted it stopped was the owner? If so that is the only person he really needed to ask.

AdrianC

iammumtoone wrote: »

If the owned flat is on the ground floor yes, but there is no one on the ground floor.

We own a very nice two-bed duplex flat in a development of eight slap bang in a city centre. The flats are all on one level, but that's about second floor level, above shops. There's a lift... The costs of that lift mean the service charge is north of £100/mo (thinking about it, it's actually nearer £150 lately). These flats are very, very reasonably priced - positively undervalued - precisely because the size of the service charge puts potential buyers off.

Losing the lift would, imo, increase their market value substantially.