Dispute over communal land for freehold properties

Norman_Castle

The easiest solution would be to discuss this with the landowners explaining the situation with the boyfriend/agent and how unwelcome it is for the majority of the residents, make sure they all speak up. Its very likely they have no interest in managing the land so offering an alternative such as managing it yourself would give them an easy solution.
Slightly odd that the boyfriend was chosen as an executor. A family friend with easy access to the owners?

It sounds like you need to bypass the new agent, do you know where the owners live? They may prefer to sell the land for an easy life.

Having one resident co-habiting with a possibly manipulative managing agent is a very unfair and difficult situation.

moneyistooshorttomention

Doesnt sound too promising that you've signed stuff worded that way - but someone else will be better able to say on that.

Have you any idea why they have just started taking an interest a couple of months ago - after all that time where they just "let you get on with it"?

eddddy

BooBoo66 wrote: »

BUT - they have not managed / maintained / repaired / renewed anything for 10+ years it's all been managed by the residents, and only in the past couple of months have they decided that they want to take over and start managing their land.
Are they not in breach of the positive covenants?

If they are in breach - then you might be able to force them to do maintenance etc, and pay them.

But it sounds like you'd prefer them not to do the maintenance, so that doesn't help you.

BooBoo66 wrote: »

Do we have any rights, i.e. is there any point trying to get lawyers onto this, or would this be just a waste of money - I'm happy to go down the lawyer/court route but only if there is a decent chance of a positive outcome.

I guess you could check with a lawyer whether the covenant is enforceable. But if you find it's not, you may have bigger problems. Your house might become very difficult to sell.

Beyond that, you can check the detail of the work done against the wording of the covenant, to make sure the covenant covers the work etc.

BooBoo66 wrote: »

A couple of years ago one of the other residents contacted the co-owner (now deceased) and asked if there was any possibility of the land being transferred into shared ownership by the residents (i.e. 1/6 each) - and the response was positive, and the next steps were to have a meeting and agree a price, but sadly he fell ill and this never happened.

We have copies of the email trail - would this help our cause now.

I can't really see how this helps.

BooBoo66 wrote: »

Also another quick question (sorry) - the land owners & executor of the will are refusing to meet and discuss - can we force a meeting?

Not unless the covenant requires them to meet you for a meeting - which it doesn't seem to.

BooBoo66

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Doesnt sound too promising that you've signed stuff worded that way - but someone else will be better able to say on that.

Have you any idea why they have just started taking an interest a couple of months ago - after all that time where they just "let you get on with it"?

The resident who'd previously asked about the land being transferred into ownership of the 6 residents, asked the surviving co-owner, who then passed this info onto the deceased's land agent upto this point the co-owners had taken no interest, but I think they now see it as an easy way to make money....

BooBoo66

Norman_Castle wrote: »

The easiest solution would be to discuss this with the landowners explaining the situation with the boyfriend/agent and how unwelcome it is for the majority of the residents, make sure they all speak up. Its very likely they have no interest in managing the land so offering an alternative such as managing it yourself would give them an easy solution.
Slightly odd that the boyfriend was chosen as an executor. A family friend with easy access to the owners?

It sounds like you need to bypass the new agent, do you know where the owners live? They may prefer to sell the land for an easy life.

Having one resident co-habiting with a possibly manipulative managing agent is a very unfair and difficult situation.

Thank you, I don't have addresses for either the surviving co-owner or the beneficiaries, but can probably find them out power of the internet

moneyistooshorttomention

BooBoo66 wrote: »

The resident who'd previously asked about the land being transferred into ownership of the 6 residents, asked the surviving co-owner, who then passed this info onto the deceased's land agent upto this point the co-owners had taken no interest, but I think they now see it as an easy way to make money....

Quite possibly so and, in this case, I have a suspicion you could get a court involved and they might allow them only to claim what is "reasonable" (which would obviously be less than what they'd charge in the hopes of trying to make a profit for themselves out of this).

I'd check on that in your position.

G_M

Talk about drip-feeding......!


Check ownership of the land with the Land Registry here. That will also give you the covenants in their Title though these will likely mirror yours.


The covenants speak of 'reasonable' costs, so you can always query on that basis.


If no maintenance has been undertaken by the freeholder for 10 years, it would be reasonable to expect a larger than average cost to make good now.


If the other house-holders have taken it upon themselves to undertake maintenance in the meantime rather than rely on their rights under the Deed, then..... more fool them!


You may need legal advice o contest the costs, but I agree, buying the land and taking over liability yourselves is the best solution long term.