Buying my building freehold

Wanderingpomm

I have a flat for 16 years which has a 900 year lease. The freeholder has never charged service charge although it is in the lease. 
the roof is leaking and my 2 neighbours don’t want to contribute, upstairs is rented and the LL wants to do minimum. We should also have proper buildings insurance. 
I wrote and asked the freeholder to sell me the whole thing so I can sort things out. Or said they needed to issue a S20 They wanted an offer but it has zero value. 
I have also asked them to sort out the roof as my flat walls are wet and mouldy. They write back and said I was in breach of my lease as I’ve never paid my (never demanded) service charge and that they also would not be providing insurance until it is paid.
i’m not sure what to do now?

eddddy

What you say is correct...

• If the freeholder has never demanded a service charge (in the correct format), then no service charge is due. So you are not in breach of your lease.

• If the freeholder has failed to insure the building (and the lease says they should), then the freeholder is in breach of the lease. Should the building burn down, you could sue the freeholder for damages.

• If the freeholder is failing to repair the roof (and the lease says they are responsible), then the freeholder is in breach of the lease for that too.

Unfortunately, it's a difficult situation to deal with... options include...

• Collective enfranchisement - i.e. the leaseholders jointly buy the freehold, but that requires cooperation from other leaseholders

• Go to court to get a court order instructing the freeholder to insure and repair the roof - but that will be expensive.

• Take over the Right to Manage the building - but that requires cooperation from other leaseholders

• You can apply to the Tribunal to appoint a manager - but I suspect that will result in high annual management fees. See: https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/what-does-appointing-a-manager-mean/

• LEASE talk about a 'Self-Help' option - which seems to allow the leaseholder to get repairs done and arrange insurance and send the bill to the freeholder. See: https://www.lease-advice.org/article/self-help-a-useful-option-for-the-unhappy-leaseholder/

Maybe book a free 15 minute session with LEASE to discuss different options with them: See https://clients.lease-advice.org/#/

NameUnavailable

You can take the case to tribunal to force the freeholder to carry out the works.

eddddy

NameUnavailable said:

You can take the case to tribunal to force the freeholder to carry out the works.

Can you provide a link to somewhere that confirms this - or to the relevant legislation?


I've never heard of that option being available to leaseholders.


As I said in my post, the leaseholder can apply to the county court to get a court order (or injunction) - but getting court orders / injunctions is a very expensive process.