Leasehold on private land - street lighting

creative-2008

I'm a leaseholder living in a flat, owned by a company. We pay them a monthly service charge for communal lighting, repairs and the ground rent.

The land isn't owned by this company, but actually by the NHS, who therefore receive the ground rent.

The legal documents show that the land the road and pavements lies on is owned by the NHS. The streetlights are frequently out, and after a few months of emails back and forth they fixed most of them (I'm assuming changing bulbs.)

There were two that they didn't and I just left it for a month to give them the chance to sort them if they were in need of actual repair.

Then, I emailed the point of contact at the NHS, who really enthusiastically replied saying they'd be straight on it etc. Another month went by, and a polite email asking if there was a reason for the delay. A week has now passed and my email has been ignored.

The reason I'm pushing for this is that one of the lights is next to our car parking spare and it makes it a pain loading or unloading things at night.

I'm wondering two things:

1) As the landowner are they under any legal obligation to provide lighting, or is it just down to goodwill / common sense

2) Is there anywhere that I can push this to next if they don't sort it out? The only place I can think of is the local council, but been as they don't own the land I'm not sure this is the right place.

Fire_Fox

It is not clear to me who "they" are since you refer to two owners: a company and the NHS, and you also refer to two different contacts (same organisation?).

Assuming you are a long leaseholder, read your long lease and any associated documents to determine who is responsible for repairs and maintenance. It is likely the freeholder is responsible, but may delegate to a managing agent.

In addition read the summary of your rights and obligations which should be sent with each and every service charge demand.

This is a private matter and nothing to do with your local council.

HTH.