Flat owner in rental block - Fire safety responsibility?

abundant1972

Hi,

I'd really welcome some advice on the following:

I bought my apartment in a complex in 2019 - which the building owners then turned into rentals when only 15 apartments sold. 

Just this week, I have been asked to pay for fire door safety & fire alarm maintenance. This is new - never had to pay previously. The buildings manager has said the service charge I pay only covers risk management services in communal areas. 

I looked through my lease and it does say the door to my apartment is my responsibility although outside decoration (paintwork?) is theirs. I could not find anything pertaining to the smoke alarms. The manager provided a local service that does the maintenance. 

The quote for the fire door check was around £56 and the quite for the fire alarms (I have 3) is £130. Both need doing annually as a minimum - adding an extra £15+ per month to my outgoings on top of the £122 service charge I already pay. 

I take on the door payment as it is in my lease, but with the alarms - they are hard wired into a panel in the reception that I have no access to - so if there was a fire in my apartment - it would show up on there. Shouldn't checking that this works be the Building's Landlord's responsibility (as the wiring is effectively outside my flat)?. It seems a lot of money to pay to just push the buttons on my alarm and check the batteries work. The firm they use is coming in March to check the fire safety systems so have said they would check mine the same day.   

Any advice/signposting welcome. Thanks.

DullGreyGuy

This is a leasehold property? 

Unless there is a material breach of the rules the leaseholders are basically responsible for all costs, some things you need to pay for directly (eg decorating your home inside) and other things are billed to the freeholder and then reapportioned out to all the leaseholders. Your lease will say how the apportionment works, in our flat there are 34 units and each pays 1/34th of the bill. 

It's inevitable that as the property gets older more work will need to be done and so the service charge will go up over time beyond just inflation. At our former flat the windows and roof of the buildings were getting near the end of their lifespan, the quote for the scaffolding alone was over £1m

We have now had fire safety checks introduced to ours building but its fire doors only and as we have direct street access we are exempt. 

You could ask them the basis for the requirement for them to be tested which could either be a lease clause or subsequent legislation. Most are fairly creative in using very broad terms about Health & Safety and not incurring additional costs to justify various actions.

abundant1972

Thanks @DullGreyGuy

We have 184 apartments, with service charge worked out on square footage of each apartment (some are 1 some 2 bedrooms / more occupants etc). I've dropped them an email so will see what they come back with. Thank you.