Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 Section 5A

paulbruk07

Hello, I have just received a letter in my letter box, which states i should seek legal advice? Ive never had to do this so im a bit in the dark.

I have been renting my New Build Flat for just over a year (January 31st 2007)

I have included links to the letter if anyone could read it and see what they make of it, or if there is any legal experts out there who could tell me what the 'Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 Section 5A' is all about id be very grateful.

My understanding was that the flat was already owned and the owner was using a letting agent to whom ive been paying rent to...

certainly when i moved in i was getting mail to somebody other than the letting agent, and i assumed they owned the flat??

There is about 12 Flats in the whole property..

Page 1
Page 2

Please Note: some parts of the letter have been removed for obvious reasons.. such as the address etc..

Many Thanks Paul.

Doozergirl

I can't read it - how do I make it bigger?

From what I can see, I think that the Freeholder is offering to sell the freehold of the building to qualifying tenants. A tenant in this case is the leaseholder - your landlord. They need to see that document.

EDIT: MAde it bigger and that is exactly what it is. It has no effect on you or your tenacny but you do need to make sure it gets to your landlord.

paulbruk07

Doozergirl wrote: »

I can't read it - how do I make it bigger?

.

Depends what browser your using...

Internet explorer you would hover your mouse over it until the icon shows up bottom right and then click it..

Firefox just click it

or download to desktop by right clicking the links...

then open in windows preview

so do you think its addressed to my landlord not me?

Doozergirl

Yes. It definately is. I edited my original post

Lavendyr

Not that I'm all that knowledgeable, but it sounds to me as though it's a message from the freeholder (Barratt Homes) to the leaseholder (your landlord, presumably) offering them the opportunity to purchase the freehold. So should be passed directly to your landlord and is not applicable to you.

Edit: oops, too slow

StaceyAKelly

I dont think that that is the case, I think that they are giving the Tenant first refusal on purchasing the property. I too am not sure but if you ring a Solicitor and ask for a free half an hour consultation they will be able to help you.

I think that the owners have gone broke and offering you first refusal to buy,

StaceyAKelly

[FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]The Right of First Refusal (RFR) is provided by Part 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (the 1987 Act) as amended by the Housing Act 1996. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]Where a landlord is proposing to sell his interest in a building containing flats in relation to which the RFR exists, he must, by law, first offer it to the tenants before offering it on the open market. He must serve formal notices on the tenants telling them what he is intending and must provide time for them to consider the offer; he cannot sell to another party during that time, nor offer the interest to anyone else at a price less than that proposed to the tenants or on different terms. Breach of these legal obligations by the landlord is a criminal offence. If the landlord sells without providing the Right of First Refusal, the tenants can serve a notice on the new owner demanding details of the transaction, including the price paid; they can then take action to force the new owner to sell to them at the price he paid. [/FONT]

Lavendyr

StaceyAKelly wrote: »

I dont think that that is the case, I think that they are giving the Tenant first refusal on purchasing the property.

Only if the tenant is renting from Barratt Homes, I would have thought (who are the ones serving the notice), which would seem a bit strange to me. But I agree that OP should seek some legal advice to be sure.

Notlob

I think you will find that the LL is the freeholder of the block and not your LL who bought the lease. Therefore, you should pass it onto your LL so that he/she can decide if they want to purchase, with the other owners of leases, the freehold.

Doozergirl

StaceyAKelly wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]The Right of First Refusal (RFR) is provided by Part 1 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (the 1987 Act) as amended by the Housing Act 1996. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]Where a landlord is proposing to sell his interest in a building containing flats in relation to which the RFR exists, he must, by law, first offer it to the tenants before offering it on the open market. He must serve formal notices on the tenants telling them what he is intending and must provide time for them to consider the offer; he cannot sell to another party during that time, nor offer the interest to anyone else at a price less than that proposed to the tenants or on different terms. Breach of these legal obligations by the landlord is a criminal offence. If the landlord sells without providing the Right of First Refusal, the tenants can serve a notice on the new owner demanding details of the transaction, including the price paid; they can then take action to force the new owner to sell to them at the price he paid. [/FONT]

This refers to the Freehold of a block of flats. The freeholder in this case is referred to as the Landlord and the leaseholder as the tenant. Which they are, essentially, albeit on such a long lease that the property will fetch full open market value of a similar freehold property.

http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/livingframe.htm

Flats come with leases rather than their own freeholds. When flats are built, the Freeholder (or landlord) owns the land the building stands on and the structural elements of the property and sells each flat off on a long lease. Each lease then affords each leaseholder (or tenant) with the right of "support and protection" from the other flats (ie. walls below and ceilings above).

The freeholder can offer the freehold for sale to the leaseholders as a collective - they still don't own their own freeholds, they still have their own leases but they join together to create a company which purchases the freehold. They then own shares in the company, rather than a share in the freehold itself.

Please, I know exactly what it is and your quote simply confirms the law with regard to the sale of a freehold.

No mortgage lender, in your scenario - the circumstances of a property being repossessed can offer first refusal to anyone. They have to show, legally, that the best price was obtained for the property. That means being offered on the open market and nothing else.

paulbruk07

Thank you for all the replies.. i`ll have a quick word with my landlord about it.. shame as the asking price is well below market value in fact id say more than 50% lower.. so somebody will get a real bargain... maybe my rent will go down as a result?