Managing Agent is dishonest

Kestrel823

Hi Everyone,



First time posting on MSE's forum and hoped to get some insight on my situation.



I bought a leasehold newbuild flat in a development circa 6 years ago. The freeholder apointed a managing agent to oversee maintenance of the development. They are contactable but always make it very clear they are here to help the freeholder rather than provide a service to homeowners.



The development has its own boilers and residents can only get hot water/heating through the latter (cannot install your own boiler/refuse to receive the service). However there has been a series of hot water breaks in recent months (5+ outages) and I decided to investigate.



It turns out that some of the boilers are on their last leg due to poor maintenance/poor design and will need replacement soon. I was hoping someone could help me understand:


- what are my rights as a leaseholder in a development? If the hot water keeps going out, do I have any rights re the managing agent/freeholder seeing as I own my flat and pay service charge? I also pay for hot water/heating provision.


- The boilers were damaged due to poor maintenance and I am gathering accounts from technicians etc. When they do break, is my only option to resort to legal action to avoid paying the replacement of the boilers?



Thanks in advance for your help.

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE.

I am not clear why you allege that the managing agents are dishonest.

Are leaseholders receiving a summary of their rights and obligations with the service charge demands? This is well worth reading.

How have you been communicating with the managing agents? If you are considering disputing the service charges it is critical you have a clear paper trail.

HTH.

Kestrel823

Thanks a lot for your reply.



They are dishonest in the sense they are not truthful about the state the heating system.



Instead of admitting two boilers have been broken due to poor mainteance, we are told that all is well - something the technicians have disproven.



The summary of rights covers the duty of care and maintenance.



As such my objective is to ensure the managing agent admits poor maintenance of boilers and does not push the cost of the replacement onto leaseholder. Does that make more sense?



Best
M

Fire_Fox

The summary of leaseholders' rights and obligations is well worth reading, particularly sections seven, nine and ten.