Freeholder forcing me to pay towards a new for roof?

Freeholder forcing me to pay towards a new for roof?

by Readers Question

Guest Author

0:01 AM, 4th June 2024, About a month 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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Comments

Puzzler

17:01 PM, 8th June 2024, About 4 weeks ago

@judith - there is no mention that this is a landlord, seems likely to be an owner-occupier

Colin Dartnell

14:20 PM, 9th June 2024, About 4 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Puzzler at 08/06/2024 - 17:01
The penultimate paragraph spells it out. 'paying tax on income'.

Heather C

15:12 PM, 9th June 2024, About 4 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Puzzler at 08/06/2024 - 17:01
"By the time I have paid the mortgage on the flat, service charge and tax on the income I hardly make much"

Kizzie

15:59 PM, 9th June 2024, About 4 weeks ago

If it’s a long residential lease then it belongs to the leaseholder whose proprietorship title to the lease is registered at HMLR.
In this case the owner is living in her flat as owner occupier.
She pays service charge only due under the provisions of her lease for which she paid a premium and the lease is the asset on which her mortgage is secured.
So does the lease cover the roof ? What does the wording of the lease say?
It is usually a repair obligation on the freeholder. BUT if the leaseholder holds a registered share in the management company which holds the freehold interest then she has another separate role as joint freeholder and she with other joint freeholders will be liable for structural repairs.

Heather C

18:31 PM, 10th June 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 09/06/2024 - 15:59
In 27 years of block management we never managed one that didn't allow the freeholder to recover the cost of the repairs. Yes he's responsible for making sure they get done, but it's almost certainly set out in the lease that that cost is recoverable from the leaseholders. In this situation, where the work has to be done to protect the fabric of the building it's quite likely they'll approach the mortgagee to ask them to pay and add the money to the flat owner's mortgage (there's generally also an admin charge to the customer for that) as a breach of lease is a serious matter.

Kizzie

21:30 PM, 10th June 2024, About 3 weeks ago

“almost certainly written in the lease”.
Almost certainly not.
It appears to be exploitation of leaseholder lack of understanding of property law. That a leaseholder pays a premium to purchase the lease to a flat. The lease is a legally binding on the parties to it and the freeholder is not party to the contract. The parties are the landlord or lessor to whom the service charges are paid and the lessee or tenant.
Service charge is leaseholders money to be held in a section 42 trust account and only used for the costs written in the lease.

Heather C

11:36 AM, 11th June 2024, About 3 weeks ago

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 10/06/2024 - 21:30Landlord and Freeholder are interchangable terms in this situation. Landlord = land owner. Why would the Freeholder, who usually only benefits from the Ground Rent income and occasional lease extension fees commit themselves to pay for things like roof renewals? Leaseholders collectively pay for the maintenance of the building via their service charges, in accordance with their lease.

Kizzie

12:24 PM, 11th June 2024, About 3 weeks ago

‘Landlord’ is not the landowner. The landowner holds the freehold title to the land and grants the leases the right to occupy a flat or house providing the purchaser of the lease complies with the T&Cs written in the lease. Service charge only payable under the provisions in the lease. Mortgages are secured on the lease which is an asset registered at HMLR because the lease in its own right has a financial value. The term landlord is a legal term under Landlord &Tenant Act 1985 /1987 and CLRA 2002 which governs the collection of service charges under long residential leases.
This doesn’t apply to rental agreements with a landlord as owner of a property.

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