Leased garage (Naughty neighbors)

anselld

HarrisonRW wrote: »

Im required to insure all 3 garages with building insurance.

Please read your lease. It may well be that you should be recharging 2 of the Leaseholders for their share.

eddddy

As others have said, read the leases. They should answer all your questions.


Regarding insurance... the leases should say something like the garage owners must not do anything that voids your insurance.

But... you have a duty to get appropriate/reasonable insurance. The garage owners might argue that getting an insurance policy that does not allow them to use power tools (or a tumble dryer) is not reasonable.

Happy arguing on that one!

G_M

HarrisonRW wrote: »

I dont pay a service charge, not sure if they do.

???? But you are the freeholder. If they were paying a service charge, you would be receiving it!

Do you not have copies of their leases?

Im required to insure all 3 garages with building insurance.

Required how, by what? Presumably it's written into their leases, and presumably also you re-claim the cost of covering their garages?

I have tested the electricity via the only fuse box i know which is upstairs in my property, switched the master switch on that box and all 3 garages still worked.. so was not really conclusive ?

Is you meter (for billing your flat) attached to that master switch?
When you switched it off, presumabky your meter stopped turning?
What happened if you activated the electric door of your garage while that master switch was off? Did a) the door work and b) your meter turn or not?

It sounds like the garages have some other supply but if it's not off your flat, and there's no consumer unit/meter in each garage, then goodness knows who's paying.....!

Davesnave

How far are the garages from the properties they serve?

It would not be beyond the wit of the average handyperson to lay an underground armoured cable from a property to a garage, say, 30m away, so I'd guess even Barratts could do it if they really tried!

franklee

Check the terms of the lease, does it prohibit the use of electricity in the garages? When I rented the garage was leasehold under a coach house and we were told the lease prohibited power being installed in the garages, we didn't even have lights. Than again we didn't have electric doors either. Even so I suggest checking to see if they are breaking the terms of the lease to see what it prohibits if anything.

societys_child

So not naughty neighbours at all, just neighbours getting on with their own lives . . .
<shakes head>

silvercar

It could be that one of the optional extras that the builder offered was the provision of a couple of plug points in the garage.

Mutton_Geoff

Is the tumble dryer condensing or vented? If vented and it is not ducted to outside, it won't do the fabric of the building any good to pump warm moist air into it regularly.

G_M

Davesnave wrote: »

How far are the garages from the properties they serve?

It would not be beyond the wit of the average handyperson to lay an underground armoured cable from a property to a garage, say, 30m away, so I'd guess even Barratts could do it if they really tried!

And yet you'd then expect the OP's own garage door to stop working when he switched off his flat's power........

EachPenny

need_an_answer wrote: »

I guess if they had the capability of a water supply the washing machine would be the icing on the cake!

If someone has diverted all the rainwater gutters into a big water butt then the mystery is solved

davidmcn wrote: »

What do you mean by "does not cover" - is there a specific condition prohibiting them? Can you quote it? I would have thought it fairly normal to use power tools and other DIY stuff in a garage.

I could easily imagine concerns about having a garage used by a third-party underneath a dwelling leading to all kinds of restrictions on what can and cannot be done in the garage - for example storing fuel, filling vehicle tanks, vehicle maintenance etc. Although it is common for people to have another flat below them, garages pose a different level of risk, and electrical supplies in buildings which are not normally occupied have a different level of risk compared to a dwelling.

It would be interesting to know, for example, if the garage is fitted with a fire/smoke alarm. I'd not be happy sleeping above a 'room' without any form of alarm, which has an unattended tumble dryer operating in it.

My guess is there is a hidden meter and CU somewhere. ProDave is right about there being unmetered supplies (they are standard for street lighting) but I have a feeling they are now illegal for new installations in a domestic setting. They work on the basis of a certain load being used for a certain number of hours per year - and obviously in a domestic setting this is difficult to control