Help needed to understand lease due to dispute with neighbour - thank you!

iechydda

Hello,

I have owned (leasehold) a flat since 2015. I lived in it myself for 4 years, and have since been renting it out. When I first moved into the flat it needed some work doing, and thus I applied for permission to carry out the work. Whilst doing the work, I also decided to take up the old laminate flooring and make use of the quirky sheet boards underneath (for which I didn't have permission). 5 years went by without any issues. All of the neighbours got on, no complaints (not one) were made to the managing agents nor the council. All was well.

However, in 2020 a new tenant moved into the flat below mine and started to complain about being able to hear my tenant walking around. This came as a bit of a surprise to me as I had been able to hear the tenant above my flat doing the same, but just accepted that this was part of living in such a flat. However, I didn't want the new tenant below to be disrupted by my tenant, so I worked with the managing agents to fit a new laminate floor for a cost of around £1500. This took a while longer than expected as it was at the height of the Corona Virus lock downs, and thus took almost a year to complete. During which time, the tenant in the flat below mine verbally abused my tenant and tried to intimidate her with aggressive behaviour (including banging on her door and shouting abuse, suggesting that he knew she lived alone and would force her out of the flat, stating that I was in breach of my lease and that my tenant had to vacate the property and just generally using anti-social behaviour to threaten my tenant). Needless to say, she has set up  a case with the local police.

Post fitting the new flooring, the tenant below continued to complain to the managing agents, and also the local council. The managing agents sent out a surveyor who concluded in his report that my new laminate flooring didn't have any underlay (which is incorrect and has been proven to be incorrect). On seeing the report, the managing agents then demanded that I remove the new floor and refit it with underlay. But, as stated, there is already underlay. Thus, the report was wrong. Also, the council case for the matter was closed due to lack of evidence.

Another year or so has passed, and the issue continues. The managing agents have now given me a month to change the flooring, otherwise they have said that they will put my in breach of the lease. Their reasoning is that the flooring isn't up to building regulation standards (for which I have asked them 100 times for information on the standards, to which they haven't responded). They have stated that the flooring has to be carpet (even though the freeholder fitted laminate flooring when renovating the property in 2010).

I would love some advice on this matter if anyone knows of anything that could help me. I am in the process of getting quotes to have carpet fitted, but I really don't want to go down this route and lose a lot of money if the threats from the managing agents are based on incorrect information.

I have attached my lease. On page 24 you can see that point 14 states that the floor should be covered in carpet, and this is what they are using against me. However, when renovated the flat didn't have carpet fitted! So this is a confusing point for me. Also, I know the other flats do not have carpet fitted (including the flat below), so should they also be in breach of their leases?

There is a lot more to this story and I can provide more details if needed. But based on this short summary, where do I stand with this? I don't want to be bullied into doing something that isn't needed.

I really appreciate any help.

Many thanks.

ciderboy2009

In a nutshell, if your lease says that it has to be carpeted then you are clearly in breach of the lease.

You should have requested to have this removed from the lease or for the laminate flooring to be replaced by carpet when you purchased as it wasn't in compliance.

If you have a mortgage then it is highly likely that you are also in breach of the mortgage terms.

sheramber

If the previous owner was in breach of  the lease that doesn't mean it is okay for you to do so.

CSI_Yorkshire

sheramber said:

If the previous owner was in breach of  the lease that doesn't mean it is okay for you to do so.

Similarly, other people breaching their leases isn't carte blanche to breach yours.

NameUnavailable

Most flats have a clause that carpet must be fitted exactly for this reason as hard flooring is much more likely to transmit noise and increase noise within the flat (thereby increasing the chance for noise to be heard in other flats).

I know a lot of people ignore this and fit laminate flooring anyway (you see it all the time if you browse Rightmove) but they will most likely be in breach of the lease. The point is whether or not it bothers the neighbours (if it's a ground floor flat it's likely to go unnoticed).

You should complain to the management co about the other flats and get them to enforce the rules on them as well! It might be worth pointing out that the freeholder fitted laminate flooring, but as said, that is still in breach of the lease.

eddddy

iechydda said:

...so I worked with the managing agents to fit a new laminate floor for a cost of around £1500. 

Just to clarify... what do you mean by "you worked with the managing agent"?

Do you mean the managing agent said they were giving you consent to fit laminate flooring? If so, do you have something in writing?

If you do, you're probably still breaching the lease, but you might have grounds for a case against the managing agent.

pinkshoes

If the lease says you have to have carpet then you have to have carpet.

It is irrelevant what the previous owner put in. They too were in breach of the lease. Did you not read the lease before purchasing?

If you could hear the people above you then make the same complaint.

Jonboy_1984

And just to confirm you/the property haven't had any sort of lease extension since the laminate was fitted in 2010?

ThisIsWeird

Lift your laminate. Fit cheap carpet. Relay laminate on top.
Half joking.
This could be a situation where one flat dweller is simply less accepting and tolerant of normal flat-living compromises than most, but it's a shame you didn't put down a full acoustic underlay first - you might have got away with it.
I understand it's the FH or LL who can enforce the terms of the lease, so I'm not sure what success you'd have in obliging them to also make the other flats fit carpets as some have suggested, especially if this was done for no reason other being churlishness. Not that you've implied you'd do such a thing.
Did you go barefoot or wear slippers? The noise of footsteps above can be very unpleasant and intrusive, so it's hard to know if the person in the flat below was being particularly unforgiving, or was genuinely finding it insufferable. Possibly a bit of both.
Bottom line - you need to comply.
I doubt you have any case against the previous owner or anyone else; you saw it had a lam floor, and were presumably given a copy of the deeds before purchase.
It's a lottery - many folk 'get away' with this, simply because they have more tolerant and accepting neighbours, or perhaps ones who hate - or are scared - to make a fuss, or they just took care to add more soundproofing and to walk softly. 

nicmyles

If the lease says carpet, and downstairs have complained, and the freeholder has told you to put carpet in, you have to put carpet in. 

That said, there are nuances sometimes. The lease on my old flat (I can't seem to read the one you've provided I'm afraid) said that the flat needed to be carpeted except for the bathroom and the kitchen. It was an open-plan flat that was mostly a kitchen-diner-living room space. That was laminate when we bought it. When we sold it, the buyer's solicitors told us all of that space that wasn't the kitchen had to be carpeted, i.e. they wanted us to carpet half a room. We said no, he bought the flat anyway.