Selling my Maisonette - NO Maintenance agreement

grahamwild

Thanks for the helpful replies will keep you updated with the outcome.

eddddy

grahamwild said:

I'm in the pros of selling my ground floor maisonette built in 1952 for which I live in for 30 years and I pay peppercorn rent of £8 per year and NO maintenance charges with a nine hundred year lease. 
 
The person who's buying solicitor has informed them there is no clarity as to who is responsible for the foundations, roof space etc  

As it's a maisonette, and based on your comments, I guess the setup is

• Upstairs maisonette is responsible for upstairs part of the building
• Downstairs maisonette is responsible for downstairs part of building
• Freeholder isn't responsible for anything
• .... but the lease doesn't explicitly mention who is responsible for roof and foundations.

(Typically with this setup, the upstairs maisonette would be responsible for the roof, and the downstairs maisonette would be responsible for the foundations.)


But fortunately for you... it sounds like you might have grounds to apply to a Tribunal for a compulsory lease variation to fix this problem.

The relevant legislation is Section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act:

35Application by party to lease for variation of lease.

(1)Any party to a long lease of a flat may make an application to [F1the appropriate tribunal] for an order varying the lease in such manner as is specified in the application.

(2)The grounds on which any such application may be made are that the lease fails to make satisfactory provision with respect to one or more of the following matters, namely—

(a)the repair or maintenance of—
(ii)the building containing the flat

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/31/section/35

But this is Landlord and Tenant law, and a lot of conveyancing solicitors don't know that area of the law.

So you might have to find a different solicitor who specialises in "Landlord and Tenant".

Here's some more info: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/in-what-circumstances-can-i-apply-to-the-first-tier-tribunal-property-chamber-to-vary-my-lease/

grahamwild

eddddy said:

grahamwild said:

I'm in the pros of selling my ground floor maisonette built in 1952 for which I live in for 30 years and I pay peppercorn rent of £8 per year and NO maintenance charges with a nine hundred year lease. 
 
The person who's buying solicitor has informed them there is no clarity as to who is responsible for the foundations, roof space etc  

As it's a maisonette, and based on your comments, I guess the setup is

• Upstairs maisonette is responsible for upstairs part of the building
• Downstairs maisonette is responsible for downstairs part of building
• Freeholder isn't responsible for anything
• .... but the lease doesn't explicitly mention who is responsible for roof and foundations.

(Typically with this setup, the upstairs maisonette would be responsible for the roof, and the downstairs maisonette would be responsible for the foundations.)


But fortunately for you... it sounds like you might have grounds to apply to a Tribunal for a compulsory lease variation to fix this problem.

The relevant legislation is Section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act:

35Application by party to lease for variation of lease.

(1)Any party to a long lease of a flat may make an application to [F1the appropriate tribunal] for an order varying the lease in such manner as is specified in the application.

(2)The grounds on which any such application may be made are that the lease fails to make satisfactory provision with respect to one or more of the following matters, namely—

(a)the repair or maintenance of—
(ii)the building containing the flat

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/31/section/35

But this is Landlord and Tenant law, and a lot of conveyancing solicitors don't know that area of the law.

So you might have to find a different solicitor who specialises in "Landlord and Tenant".

Here's some more info: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/in-what-circumstances-can-i-apply-to-the-first-tier-tribunal-property-chamber-to-vary-my-lease/

Thank you very helpful.

eddddy

grahamwild said:

eddddy said:

grahamwild said:

I'm in the pros of selling my ground floor maisonette built in 1952 for which I live in for 30 years and I pay peppercorn rent of £8 per year and NO maintenance charges with a nine hundred year lease. 
 
The person who's buying solicitor has informed them there is no clarity as to who is responsible for the foundations, roof space etc  

As it's a maisonette, and based on your comments, I guess the setup is

• Upstairs maisonette is responsible for upstairs part of the building
• Downstairs maisonette is responsible for downstairs part of building
• Freeholder isn't responsible for anything
• .... but the lease doesn't explicitly mention who is responsible for roof and foundations.

(Typically with this setup, the upstairs maisonette would be responsible for the roof, and the downstairs maisonette would be responsible for the foundations.)


But fortunately for you... it sounds like you might have grounds to apply to a Tribunal for a compulsory lease variation to fix this problem.

The relevant legislation is Section 35 of the Landlord and Tenant Act:

35Application by party to lease for variation of lease.

(1)Any party to a long lease of a flat may make an application to [F1the appropriate tribunal] for an order varying the lease in such manner as is specified in the application.

(2)The grounds on which any such application may be made are that the lease fails to make satisfactory provision with respect to one or more of the following matters, namely—

(a)the repair or maintenance of—
(ii)the building containing the flat

Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/31/section/35

But this is Landlord and Tenant law, and a lot of conveyancing solicitors don't know that area of the law.

So you might have to find a different solicitor who specialises in "Landlord and Tenant".

Here's some more info: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/in-what-circumstances-can-i-apply-to-the-first-tier-tribunal-property-chamber-to-vary-my-lease/

Thank you very helpful.

And just to add, the tribunal would order the lease variation - so the freeholder and neighbour cannot stop you getting it.

grahamwild

Thanks eddddy. I suspect this cost thousands of pounds, any idea how long the process would take? 

eddddy

grahamwild said:

Thanks eddddy. I suspect this cost thousands of pounds, any idea how long the process would take? 

I think it took me about 6 months to get a hearing (about something else) - but it may be longer at the moment.

You'll probably want a solicitor to to make your application, and to draft a proposed Deed of Variation for the lease. I'd guess a solicitor would charge £1k to £2k.

(I don't think you're required to pay the freeholder's costs in this case. But it's still possible that the freeholder can recharge them to you as a service charge - it depends on what your lease says.)

In theory, this will benefit both you and your neighbour - as they'll have trouble selling their flat, as well. So it might be fair to split the costs between you. But you'd need to persuade your neighbour to do that. They might refuse.

grahamwild

Again many thanks.

grahamwild

Just heard the Freeholder wants to charge over £3000 to do a amendment of Deed of Variation to include joint responsibility of maintenance between myself and upstairs. 

nicmyles

grahamwild said:

Just heard the Freeholder wants to charge over £3000 to do a amendment of Deed of Variation to include joint responsibility of maintenance between myself and upstairs. 

It says something about the utter insanity of leasehold that when reading this post about a freeholder proposing to charge three grand to give leaseholders the privilege of paying for their own maintenance of the property, that my first thought was:

Gosh, I thought they'd want more, bite his hand off for a quick sale, mate.

eddddy

grahamwild said:

Just heard the Freeholder wants to charge over £3000 to do a amendment of Deed of Variation to include joint responsibility of maintenance between myself and upstairs. 

So that would involve varying two leases - yours and the one for upstairs.

Is that £3k for both leases, or £3k each? (£3k for both sounds more like the going rate.)

The upstairs leaseholder would need to agree as well.  Do you think you could persuade them to pay half?

Also, you'll probably need your own solicitor to check the deed.

And the people upstairs will probably need their own solicitor - who will want a fee.


Plus, you'll both need consent from your mortgage lenders as well - and they might charge a fee for that as well.