Communicating with Freeholder

AlphaCentauri

Long story but basically I'm in communication with my landlord (sub-leaseholder) and the freeholder over a leaking roof in my flat - roof shared with other flats.  

The freeholder keeps telling me not to communicate with him claiming their financial relationship is with the landlord and not me.  I pointed out that a negligent landlord would not raise the issue of their negligence to a freeholder for obvious reasons.

Presumably there are legal grounds whereby he cannot dismiss my claims?

eddddy

As mentioned in your previous thread - the freeholder is correct.  You have no contract with the freeholder, so they have no responsibility towards you. And they have no duty to communicate with you.

Your complaint is between you and your landlord.



As an aside, have you read your landlord's sub-lease, and the headlease to find out who is responsible for repairing the leak?

It could be any one of...

• your landlord (the sub-leaseholder),
• or the head leaseholder
• or the freeholder

Mark_d

The freeholder can dismiss your claims and you have no contract with the freeholder.

I am a leaseholder and have experienced a leaking roof (I've got a top floor flat).  The management company, rather than the freeholder, is typically responsible for the issue - which might go through an insurance company that they have contracted with.

In my case, the I had to wait until the weather was dry for a few days before a temporary repair could be done to the roof.  A longer term repair is to happen later in the year.  Our entire roof needs replacing but as this will need to be paid for by all leaseholders, it's a longer process to get this arranged.

In terms of damage to the ceiling of my flat - the management company's insurance policy has a big excess because they wanted to keep the costs down for leaseholders.  This has meant that I would have to pay the full costs to get my ceilings re-painted.  But as this is not critical I can put it off for a few years.