Freeholder forcing me to pay towards a new for roof?

Freeholder forcing me to pay towards a new for roof?

0:01 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago 19

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Hi, I have a one bed top floor flat in a converted Victorian house I rent out. The roof has caused many leaks over the past 6 years that I have owned the flat, the Freeholders have always ‘patched it up’ and clearly it doesn’t work.

They have obtained several quotes to replace the flat roof and tiled roof issuing the relevant legal paperwork to myself and the other 5 landlords / flats in the converted house.

The problem is I do not have the £6,500 to pay my share of the costs. The Freeholder does not care and said the work must be done before the weather changes and they can not proceed unless everyone pays the money in advance of work starting.

They’ve warned that I’ll be in breach of the lease if I don’t pay and even suggested that I sell the flat.

By the time I have paid the mortgage on the flat, service charge and tax on the income I hardly make much, I don’t want to sell as this is a long term hold investment, also even if I sell it will take probably 8 to 10 weeks for the legals to go through.

Can the landlord force me to sell and or sue me for not being able to pay my share of the roof bill? I hope to get a loan for the roof but for several reasons this won’t happen until at least September this year. Any thoughts (keep them polite!) would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan


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Cider Drinker

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8:46 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

For six years you have known that the roof needed work. It must have become increasingly likely that a new roof would be needed.

Who did you think would pay? Do you know how much is in the repairs and maintenance fund? Is the quote for the works fair and reasonable? Are the other leaseholders ready to commit to the works? What does your lease say about funding major repairs?

John

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9:56 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

When you have a flat in a block you also have the liability for any repairs that come under the block lease.

The classic repair is the roof and usually the other owners moan about it as it doesn’t affect them. In this case it affects you but you are not happy.

There should be a maintenance fund for these types of repairs. Some building are badly managed so they have little money.

How much does each flat pay per yr in fees? Who buys the insurance etc? What are the basic admin costs of running the building (management fee, insurance cost, fire check, maybe cleaning etc).

Once this figure has been worked out how much is left to go into the repairs fund?

GlanACC

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10:00 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

you knew there was an issue. £6.5k sound reasonable actually. Get a loan.

TheMaluka

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10:12 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Your freeholder must have issued a section 20 notice and given you the opportunity to obtain alternative estimates.

Markella Mikkelsen

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10:13 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Hi Jonathan,
Yes you will need to pay your share. This is the downside of owning a flat.
Were you served with a Section 20? If not, then your freeholders have not followed the correct process.
If you have been served a Section 20, you should have been given the opportunity to submit written observations and alternative quotes.
But at the end of the day, a flat roof replacement is expensive, so be grateful that you are sharing the costs with the other leaseholders. If you owned the building outright, you would have had to pay the entire bill yourself.
£6,500 sounds about right.

I was in a similar situation last year with a leasehold top floor flat. The costs to repair the flat roof came to £6,000 per leaseholder.

Judith Wordsworth

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11:20 AM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Read your Lease.

The Freeholder can certainly take action if you do not pay this, if it’s allowed to be collected prior to the works commencing. Easiest would be for them to do this by Money Claim Online = a CCJ against you. Hardest is a s146 and most courts won’t grant.

Read your Lease to see how maintenance/service charges can be collected ie in advance/arrears/iron demand.

If your Lease states you pay your share for repairs to the roof, damp proof course, etc etc on demand you have no option but to pay this.

You could ask your mortgage company for a top up over a short term or entirely of your mortgage; increase the max on a credit card; borrow money from family etc.

The Freeholder is doing their job under their obligations and responsibility. It is not for them to “care”, harsh as that may sound.

An owner of a PRS property needs to have money behind them for “rainy days”, have a sensible loan to value mortgage, work on not more 10 months rent pa and know if they can afford to be in this profession ie cover ALL the costs if the tenant stops paying their rent till you get back possession through the Courts.

If you can’t afford to then honestly it’s not for you. If you want to be in property as an investment look at flips, buying, doing up, selling on.

Jim K

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12:25 PM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Is this real or made up for clickbait...

Kizzie

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12:25 PM, 4th June 2024, About 7 months ago

The freeholder is liable for repairs to the property structure and has already admitted this liability inthe past by paying for‘patching up’ .
Have you kept evidence of these minor repairs.
A template letter is available on the internet under ‘freeholder obligations to repair’ to be sent to the freeholder.
Section 20 LTA 1985 only applies to service charge maintenance repair costs written in your lease a legally binding contract.
You are not liable for anything not covered by your lease so read it carefully.

Heather C

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15:34 PM, 6th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 04/06/2024 - 12:25
Those patch up costs will still have been funded by the leaseholders via their service charge though, just not high enough to have required the section notice.

Puzzler

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17:01 PM, 8th June 2024, About 7 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 04/06/2024 - 11:20
@judith - there is no mention that this is a landlord, seems likely to be an owner-occupier

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