Neighbour refuses repairs on my side, both leaseholds, freeholder invovled.

stuckinarut123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066425#Comment_82066425

yes correct on all points. Realistically it’s because the Lesser Lease does not provide a map of the pipes and where they are going it only makes reference to “keeping items in good order/making repairs” and drains/sewerage is one of them.

given the lease says it, and its obvious its coming from their side, i’ll let the freeholder sort this out.

is there any legal information i need from an insurer such as legal cover added to contents insurance? I saw someone mention this above but i can’t see the freeholder asking me to pay indemnity on their legal fees as no mention as of yet. Or would their legal costs come from the buildings insurance, which they provide (through a group like aviva) for any legal costs?

eddddy

is there any legal information i need from an insurer such as legal cover added to contents insurance? I saw someone mention this above but i can’t see the freeholder asking me to pay indemnity on their legal fees as no mention as of yet. 

I would ignore the comment about legal cover on your contents insurance - it's not relevant to anything you've said this thread, and it seems to have confused you.

Legal cover wouldn't cover any fees that your freeholder adds to your Service Charge - such as the freeholder's legal costs.

 Or would their legal costs come from the buildings insurance, which they provide (through a group like aviva) for any legal costs?

No. The freeholder would recover their legal costs from the leaseholders - not from an insurer.

BUT… you've said there's a head lease, which throws everything up in the air. It means a lot of what you've said doesn't make sense.

To move forward you probably need to start from first principles…

• Describe the freehold - what is it's extent?
• Describe the headlease - what is it's extent?
• Describe the lesser lease - what is it's extent?

• Why is the freeholder involved with the drain issue? Why isn't the head leaseholder dealing with it?

Or maybe just leave it, and let the freeholder deal with it.

WIAWSNB

Re Legal Protection, it is usually around a £25 option added to an insurance policy. I presume you have contents insurance? If so, I would always add LP to help cover yourself against similar matters in future.

It won't help retrospectively in this case, but from what you have told us this matter has been going on for a whole year, with a not-insignificant level of impact on you in particular - flies and smell. LP should help guide the correct legal approach to place liability on the sewer's owner, and consequences if they fail. They might have suggested 'Environmental Health' at the beginning, for example. It might even be, if it's the FHer's responsibility to arrange/force repairs, that the legal pressure is applied on them. Bottom line - when most layfolk receive a legal letter, it usually focuses their mind.

Is your freeholder the same as your head-leaseholder? Who do you pay service charges to, including for the building's insurance? In their position, I would personally ensure any policy would also include some form of LProt/guidance too. This situation has taken far too long to get to this still-unresolved stage.

Having said all that, I still don't know from what you've told us, whether the drains up to the point it becomes the WB's responsibility is a shared or individual responsibility? I mean, who would pay for rebuilding the inspection chamber if that were needed? The sewer pipes do, tho', appear to be distinctly individual, so I'd suspect that they are also individual responsibility, but has the FH clarified this beyond doubt?

Anyhoo, assuming the FH has got his facts sorted, he seems to be applying the right pressure on the owner with the ultimate threat of forfeiture. Obviously it very rarely gets to that as folk wise up and capitulate, but the owner would be daft to ignore this now.

stuckinarut123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066603#Comment_82066603

The head leaseholder mentioned in the head lease and lesser lease all mention the same company. the parent company owns the freehold and they are the “freeholder” i have mentioned and am speaking to.

My issue has been this has dragged on for so long because the freeholder is a massive company, so they appoint a block manager to the area, which is about 1000 properties to deal with. So they have been delayed dealing with the issue, not only this they also kept giving chances to the neighbour every time they emailed or called to respond, this meant further delays as the neighbour refused all response.

I think i’ll leave it with freeholder now as they are almost over the line

stuckinarut123

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066641#Comment_82066641

sure i can get legal cover added to the home insurance policy, i’ll discuss it with my provider.

Inspection chamber of the manhole should be repaired at a 4 way cost between all homes they need to agree to this - however they dont give a crap.

the water board (thames here) are liable for pipe L in the image above only and any of their assets. Without a doubt Thames have told the truth as i have had a senior network engineer come out, the head person, showed me the maps and explained everything. They have said this is unfortunate as the neighbour is being difficult.

I assume and can only rely on the CCTV survey providing the reasonable doubt that these are not my pipes is what the freeholder is basing it off of. Short of the freeholder going round my home and asking them flush their toilet whilst he inspects the manhole so he can determine who owns what, however anyone can see that these are not my pipes as they come from the neighbouring property.

Freeholder helping so i’ll leave it at that

if the work gets done i’ll feed it back here! Hope so!

thanks for everything everyone!

TroubledTarts

Hi there, many moons ago we had home contents insurance with legal cover and a situation not dis-similar to yours with a shared drain and it made sure we had legal representation and mediation which meant we split the work 50/50

I only meant to add to this chat that if you have this you should contact them for advice and how they can help.

artyboy

I'd be surprised if adding legal protection to your insurance would cover you for any issues/disputes that are already ongoing….

TroubledTarts

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82066951#Comment_82066951

No that's too late that's why I asked if they had legal cover.

artyboy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067044#Comment_82067044

agreed, and the OP said it was something the could look at adding. Which will be too late.

WIAWSNB

As said, LP won't help retrospectively - I hope the OP didn't misunderstand this. But, especially now he knows that at least one fellow leaseholder is a twit, it makes sense to add to guard against future twitisms.