Leasehold catchment

Shoppadolley

Hi all,
Does anyone have any advice? Our buyers mortgage company won’t go ahead with his mortgage until we have put a fire door in, a requirement that was ordered 2 years ago on a fire risk assessment which is fair enough. However, the management company are sorting this (though we have to pay for it), and have chosen a door that is not fit for purpose as it is and has to be made bespoke. This will take a minimum of 16weeks to do and we are due to exchange next week. We have asked for permission to install another fire door but the landlord has refused unless we pay £900 to the doors they want us to get at an unknown date. So we are caught as we will have to pay £750 for the temporary door and £900 for a door we cannot reasonably source now.

Any ideas?

princeofpounds

I'm sorry, the last part of your post about the options being offered is not particularly clear. Could you please clarify them?

Having said that, if this is what it takes to get the door in and the sale over the line, it's probably worth just taking it on the chin. Otherwise your sale is not going to progress, and you will start from marketing all over again.

eddddy

• Who does the lease say is responsible for front doors - the leaseholder or freeholder? 
• Does the lease stipulate design of the front door (i.e. to make sure that everyone has the same design of front door)?
• Has a section 20 consultation been done?

For example, if the freeholder is responsible for front doors and a section 20 consultation has been correctly done, I doubt you can 'back out' of paying the £900 now.

If the freeholder isn't responsible for the front doors and/or no section 20 consultation has been done, have you contractually agreed to pay £900 in some other way?

(If the management company has been negligent in initially choosing doors that are not fit for purpose, you shouldn't have to pay any extra costs arising purely from their negligence - e.g. if they've had to scrap some doors they bought because they were unsuitable.)

But maybe you just want to pay the £700/£900 to save a protracted argument, and to get your property sold.

Shoppadolley

Hi all,

We have paid it as the freeholder was withholding permission until we did.

The doors are our responsibility, no section 20 can be done due to that. The fire report says they must be changed, however, because the lease says we must obtain the landlords permission we are over a barrel. I believe it does say the doors have to match but they haven’t in the 7years we have been here!