Nightmare Freeholder - Please Help!

Lialder1985

Hi There,

Has anyone been in this position before please... we'd be really grateful for some advice if poss! :A

Nutshell: Our freeholder lives in their flat and doesn't pay towards repairs or maintenance fee like the rest of us

- We live in a converted house (not in our lifetime) which has 4 flats
- When we purchased the flat, we understood that this came with a leasehold and were advised we had to pay a £55 a month maintenance fee to a property management company
- A couple of years ago the freehold changed hands and the new person appointed a new property maintenance company and the fee went up to £115 a month

- Recently we have been advised the freeholder has instructed for some major roof repairs which we have had a consultation letter on
- Through off the record talks with the property company, we've discovered we are paying 33.3% of the maintenance monthly fee and will need to pay a third for the roof. The freeholder who lives in one of the flats currently, does not pay anything towards the maintenance fees or the major repairs. I.e. won't pay towards the roof

-We've looked through our leasehold contract we were given and there is no reference to the percentage we need to pay in terms of across the 4 flats.

Why should this freeholder get away with living in one of the 4 flats and not paying anything, whilst we all foot the bill? Is there anything that can be done? We always assumed we were paying 25%

Thanks so much

Soundgirlrocks

Lialder1985 wrote: »

Why should this freeholder get away with living in one of the 4 flats and not paying anything, whilst we all foot the bill? Is there anything that can be done? We always assumed we were paying 25%

Because they own the freehold and presumably issued the original lease on those terms. It should have been in the lease how service charges are split, I'm surprised it wasn't discussed at the time of purchase. It might be worth checking the leases on the other flats, although the situation sounds a little unusual (there may not be a lease for the flat that owns the freehold) just for clarification.

It sounds that the freeholder is acting responsibly and following the law regarding section 20 consultation and maintaining the building. How the maintenance is split doesn't make them a nightmare freeholder

SallyDucati

When you say the freehold changed hands, does the freehold come with that particular flat or did the current owner of that flat buy the freehold?

What does the lease say about paying for maintenance charges? The situation you describe does sound odd and I wonder if it is being interpreted to one individuals gain if it is not clear.

eddddy

Lialder1985 wrote: »

-We've looked through our leasehold contract we were given and there is no reference to the percentage we need to pay in terms of across the 4 flats.

Are you sure there's nothing in the lease to say what proportion of the service charge you should be paying - it won't necessarily express it as a percentage?


If there really isn't, that sounds like a defective lease, and your solicitor should have highlighted that when you purchased.

davidmcn

When did you buy, and what were you advised about your lease at the time?

What does the lease say about the proportion you're meant to pay?

Lialder1985

Because they own the freehold and presumably issued the original lease on those terms. It should have been in the lease how service charges are split, I'm surprised it wasn't discussed at the time of purchase. It might be worth checking the leases on the other flats, although the situation sounds a little unusual (there may not be a lease for the flat that owns the freehold) just for clarification.

It sounds that the freeholder is acting responsibly and following the law regarding section 20 consultation and maintaining the building. How the maintenance is split doesn't make them a nightmare freeholder

Thanks very much for your reply! In this situation, the freeholder did not sell us the leasehold. We have lived here longer and the person bought one of the flats a couple of years ago which came with the freehold. So they are now living in one of the 4 flats.
Our leasehold document is from the 80's as the document has changed hands lots of times and states that the freeholder is responsible for arranging the major repairs and that leaseholders must contribute 'reasonable' costs.
We don't find it reasonable that the freeholder is living in 1/4 flats and the other 3 flats are paying for everything.
Appreciate your response to my question, thanks very much

Lialder1985

When you say the freehold changed hands, does the freehold come with that particular flat or did the current owner of that flat buy the freehold?

What does the lease say about paying for maintenance charges? The situation you describe does sound odd and I wonder if it is being interpreted to one individuals gain if it is not clear.

Thanks very much for your reply!
Unfortunately we only have our own copy of the leasehold, written many years ago (last update in the 80s) to go on. It doesn't give details of the freehold but does state that the freeholder is responsible for arranging major repairs and maintenance and that the leaseholder must contribute reasonable costs towards this.
We have contacted the property maintenance company for clarification, as we suspect that the freeholder purchased the flat which came with both a leasehold and a freehold.

Lialder1985

Are you sure there's nothing in the lease to say what proportion of the service charge you should be paying - it won't necessarily express it as a percentage?


If there really isn't, that sounds like a defective lease, and your solicitor should have highlighted that when you purchased.

Thanks very much for your reply!
There was nothing highlighted from our solicitor, but we've now contacted them about this/ to seek clarification. The lease itself has changed hands lots and is very old... the only reference to charges is that the freeholder is responsible for arranging major repairs and maintenance and that leaseholders should pay towards reasonable costs.

Lialder1985

When did you buy, and what were you advised about your lease at the time?

What does the lease say about the proportion you're meant to pay?

Bought just a few years ago and we were pretty naive. We were first time buyers and didn't understand what leasehold was... I'd go as far as we didn't realise leasehold and freehold existed. Our solicitor took care of the paperwork and when we bought it, the mortgage company advised us there would be small maintenance fee for the communal areas. It was only when we received a letter from the new freeholder - to say maintenance charges had gone up considerably etc - that we realised there was ever a freeholder. We had no contact or dealings from the previous one and no name or address was given at point of sale.

davidmcn

You may have a case against your solicitor if they really told you nothing about the lease.

WreckDiver

If one of the flats came with the freehold for the whole block then the owner is both the leaseholder and freeholder so is still bound to the terms of their lease.

You need to find out what their lease says they are responsible for. It could be that their lease is different to your own and that they are exempt from paying service charges in exchange for owning the freehold.

You may have to go to the 1st Tier Tribunal to get to the bottom of this but perhaps the threat of doing this will encourage the freeholder to cooperate if there lease does match yours.