Shared ownership purchased/ our rights

unlucky_lass

My son has just purchased 45% of his first property, (a flat in London,) shared ownership with a Housing Association. Flats were built in 2011.

When he moved in half of all the down lights in the flat were not working.
On investigation it turn out that these bulbs and fittings are now obsolete, the bulbs are GU10, but the size is unusual - 7v 63mm diameter x 90 mm deep.

The solution is to replace fittings and re skim the ceilings, as the holes would be too big for a “normal” LED GU10 size fitting. This would be expensive.

The question is:
The Housing Association owned 75% before selling the property.
We do understand that once you share buy you are responsible for maintenance.
However, this is a major change and was not maintained or issue solved before he moved in.
Surely the housing association has a responsibility that the flat is in a fully maintained and working condition, when selling the flat to a new owner/tenant, after all he’s still paying rent.
Would appreciate any advice and what are his legal rights?

AdrianC

Nope, he bought the property with the maintenance liability, and accepted the condition it was in at the time of exchange.

63mm diameter is not an unusual size for bulbs with a GU10 base, although 90mm is unusually long.
Can't the fitting accept shorter bulbs, perhaps with a longer bulbholder tail?

What diameter is the ceiling hole?

unlucky_lass

Hi Adrian,
We think the hole is 100mm diameter its hard to measure as to get the fitting out would damage the ceiling and we want to find a solution avoiding that. We tried a shorter bulb to no avail, we haven’t heard of a bulb holder tail I will look into it.

AdrianC

Why "no avail"? If it's simply that the bulbholder tails aren't long enough, then...
https://www.screwfix.com/p/luceco-gu10-gz10-lampholder/3751h
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/509733000

Or just replace the entire fitting with something like...
https://www.mygreenlighting.co.uk/low_energy_downlights/led_downlights/9184.html
110mm total diameter, comes with an adapter to fit holes from 70-100mm.

Removing recessed downlighters doesn't usually damage the ceiling - they're spring loaded, so you just need to pull them downwards.

Cakeguts

The flat was maintained by the person who owned the 25% not the housing association. This is nothing to do with the housing association because they don't pay for the mainenance.

unlucky_lass

Thanks Adrian for the info.,
we will buy the bulb holder tail and try it out, unfortunately he lives in London and we live in the midlands, but probably going at the weekend, so you’ve given us some different ideas to try!

unlucky_lass

Cakeguts wrote: »

The flat was maintained by the person who owned the 25% not the housing association. This is nothing to do with the housing association because they don't pay for the mainenance.

Yes no doubt you’re right, poor lad first property and feel bad for him, shower doesn’t work either! ...But can be fixed.

AdrianC

unlucky_lass wrote: »

unfortunately he lives in London and we live in the midlands, but probably going at the weekend, so you’ve given us some different ideas to try!

Can't he do this himself?

G_M

AdrianC wrote: »

Can't he do this himself?

He's a home owner now. Learning basic DIY is part of the pleasure!


And utube makes DIY for the unitiated so much easier than in my early days.


So send him the advice and get him to buy/try the alternative suggested. You can always go up and help out if he gets stuck.

sal_III

Just make sure to turn off the fuse for the lights, before starting to DIY replace the bulb holder tails or any other elements of the down-light.

Alternatively just buy some of the obsolete bulbs in bulk to get you through the next several years.

AdrianC

sal_III wrote: »

Just make sure to turn off the fuse for the lights, before starting to DIY replace the bulb holder tails or any other elements of the down-light.

Turning the "fuse" (MCB) off or removing the fuse only disables the live, not the neutral. Just the same as turning the switch off does...

Turning the entire fusebox/consumer unit off may well break the neutral as well as the live - or may not on an old fusebox. Even on a modern CU, the lights may well be on a non-RCD protected circuit, to prevent the entire house tripping when a bulb fails.