Leasehold garage with workspace above

Madbiscwee

Hi
Can anyone please help me? I moved into a three storey townhouse just over a year ago which has a detached garage in a block of two, with a workspace above which is leasehold. We lease one of the garages with the workspace. I have looked through all of my paperwork and due to the leasehold company (RMG Property Management) almost doubling what we were told we would be paying in the last year (due to a huge rise in the "reserve fund" which they say is because they were not taking enough to start with, baring in mine I have also not witnessed any work being carried out, maintenance or otherwise in the 18 months we have been here!) decided to do some digging, and have come up with something that makes me wonder if they are right. The company have been charging us one lot of charges for the garage and another for the workspace. Now, when looking through all of the documentation and doing some further digging, I discovered that the workspace and the garage are actually registered with the land registry as "one" thing. They can never be separated or sold on as individual items, so how is it that we can be charged separately? Also can a leasehold company suddenly charge a huge amount for a "reserve fund" claiming it is because they have been undercharging, and realised that there was not enough money in this fund should they need it? I do feel that this company is shocking and have read very similar things about them all over the internet, and am not the sort of person to just pay for something if I feel it is wrong, but before I go through the appeals stage I was wondering if there was anyone else out there that own a similar set up and what in fact you pay for? Many thanks in advance.

lincroft1710

Madbiscwee wrote: »

I discovered that the workspace and the garage are actually registered with the land registry as "one" thing. They can never be separated or sold on as individual items, so how is it that we can be charged separately?

"Sold" and "rented" are 2 completely different concepts. As a comparison for your situation, individual rooms in a house are not sold, but they can be rented to a lodger. So the freeholder can rent rooms (or garage and workspace) separately.

eddddy

Your lease is your contract with the freeholder.

The lease will say what you must pay for - and you agreed to the terms of the lease when you bought it.

So if the lease says that you have to pay into a "reserve fund", then you've already agreed to do that. (If it doesn't say that, then you don't have to pay.)

Separating the charges for the workshop and garage sounds completely irrelevant.


You mention an "appeals stage" - what are you referring to? Does your lease say something about an "appeals stage"?