Sold leasehold for apartment under false pretences

tomtech93

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice following the purchasing of my leasehold apartment which was a new build purchased from a well known housing developer. I purchased the property in December 2016 and when purchasing the property I was told that I must pay a service charge which covers a number of things including the regular fortnightly cleaning of the corridor I share with the apartment next door as well as the keeping of the landscaped areas in the courtyard where my designated parking space is.

I payed the service charge up front for one year and have not payed anything else towards the service charge as the grass in the courtyard has never been cut by the housing developers staff of any third parties (my neighbour intermittently cuts the grass) and I have had to consistently chase the housing developer to clean the shared corridor, it is not regularly cleaned every fortnight but is cleaned every now and then every few months. The housing developer reminds me that I owe the service charge every now and then and every time I tell them that I won't pay for services that aren't being provided and they then go quite for a few months.

Today I had a letter from my neighbour telling me that the housing developer has suddenly decided that the landscaped areas in the courtyard belong to them and that the grass is to be replaced with gravel over the next few days.

My question to anyone with any relevant experience is, whether it is worth pursuing legal action against the housing developer over this matter as, I believe they have sold me a leasehold for my apartment under false pretences. I have plans showing that the landscaped area in the courtyard is a 'shared' area that I received when completing on the property as potential evidence in this situation. I believe that the argument that my property has decreased in value by the housing developer simply 'giving' the landscaped area to my neighbour is reasonable, I was told informally by the sales advisor when purchasing the property that there would be nothing to stop me from putting a deck chair on the landscaped areas or having a barbecue on the landscaped areas (not that I would do this but theoretically I could) whereas now if I wanted to do this I would be on my neighbours property and they would have every right to stop me / object to this.

Finally, and this may or may not be relevant or help my case but a few months ago a different neighbour who also parks in the courtyard came to my door and kicked up a fuss telling me that it's my fault that the landscaped areas are in such a state (in order to park straight, I must drive one of my wheels onto the grass before turning and straightening up into my bay), before I could explain that this is the responsibility of the housing developer my neighbour forced his way into the door of the shared hallway and physically assaulted me, I have reported this to the police and surprise surprise they don't care as there was not enough evidence (in addition to my physical injuries) to prove that my neighbour committed the assault.

Anyone advice or discussion would be very much appreciated,
Many thanks

HampshireH

They cannot just give the land to someone and remove the rights specified in your deeds.

However your neighbour if they aquire the freehold cannot prevent your "right" from being executed without a deed of variation on the lease i believe

It will need to be in your lease and marked accordingly not just a conversation which has been had upon purchase.

Its unlikely your neighbour has purchased the freehold to a number of flats but not impossible:think:

HampshireH

The assault is irrelevant (sorry but its unrelated to the current problem or the people involved)

middleclassbutpoor

A few points -

It doesn't matter what you were told but more what your contract for the service charge states. If the contract says fortnightly - ask for evidence of this. If it says regular upkeep then you need to define regular.. You could ask for evidence of when they have attended and done work. If they refuse and are not meeting the contract then there may be a legal route for you to take. It will incur cost and time though.

You are clearly making a point by not paying but you will have to pay at some point - i.e. when you sell as you need to confirm this is up to date and present proof of this. Im not sure what would happen if you were in dispute..?

Your driving is destroying (vandalising?) the grass - you can't seriously expect that the maintenance costs covers this. Why would they replace/repair this for you to continue doing it because you cant park without driving on it?

There is no excuse for violence in what you have described but your post has come across that you have a bit of a victim mentality so it's everyone else's fault.

Why not repair the damage you have done and build some bridges with your neighbour and look to consider working with your neighbours to see if you can sack this firm and get a new one in who will do what is promised?

Your actions are only hurting yourself.

eddddy

Regarding service charges - you've slightly misunderstood how they work.

A freeholder's (or their agent's) job is to pay all the bills, add up the total of all the bills, and divide the cost between all the leaseholders - your share of the bills is called your service charge.


So the freeholder (or their agent) arranges to get the grass cut, and the corridor cleaned, etc, etc.

Then the freeholder (or their agent) pays the contractors, and then splits the cost amongst all the leaseholders.

You (and others) can ask the freeholder to get the contractors to cut the grass more often - but then the contractors will charge more, so your service charge will be higher.

BUT... if, for example, you suspect that the freeholder is paying the contractors to cut the grass every week, but they're not actually cutting the grass every week - you should tell the freeholder. The freeholder may not know this.

tomtech93

In the documents it states that the services are provided regularly, I have asked for evidence for this on several occassions and have told them that I will be happy to pay once they prove that the services have been provided for a consecutive period of three months.

My driving is not destroying or vandalising the grass there is a slight dip where the tarmac falls off to the grass, to rectify this I put some gravel there to make it a smooth and even surface, hence I made it good after only a few weeks of moving here.

Building bridges with a violent alcoholic is not something I’m prepared to do, no firm has ever been appointed to tend to the landscaping or to clean the communal hallway as I have asked for evidence of these contracts on several occassions since moving in and have been consistently ignored.

I understand how the service charge works but I have been charged for services that have not been provided due to no contractors being commissioned (as evidence by the lack of evidence requested by me on several occassions). They seem to have taken the easy route out by ‘giving’ the landscaped areas to one of my neighbours so that it is not their responsibility to ensure they are well kept.

eddddy

tomtech93 wrote: »

I understand how the service charge works but I have been charged for services that have not been provided due to no contractors being commissioned (as evidence by the lack of evidence requested by me on several occassions).

As I say - that's not really possible. I think you're still not getting the concept of service charges.

If no contractors have been commissioned to cut the grass, then there are no invoices to be paid for cutting the grass. So there is nothing for you to pay a share of. (i.e. You are not paying for the grass to be cut.)

You might have paid an estimated service charge up front for cutting the grass, but if no contractors are commissioned, and therefore no invoices are paid, the money will just be sitting in your service charge account. (A bit like if the money was sitting in your bank account.) It hasn't gone anywhere.