Help with leasehold dilemma!

Help with leasehold dilemma!

9:55 AM, 9th May 2024, About 7 months ago 22

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Hi, all our twenty private management company shareholders are owners of their flats, and hold them on Leasehold Title Absolute. Collectively (as our company) we own our entire property on Freehold Title Absolute. The twenty shareholders are of equal status, each of us holding 200 shares in our property.

Our governing legislation is the Companies Act 2006 and we are registered at Companies House. We have a Lease that binds all of us it is held by HM Land Registry. On paper, this setup should provide a sense of security and stability. However, despite these legal safeguards, our collective situation is far from comfortable.

We have five directors all but one are totally inactive. The one gets no support from the inactives. None of them has read our Lease, nor has even a remote acquaintance with the Companies Act 2006.

A manager was foisted on our company by two outgoing directors. The manager assigned to us seems to lack any understanding of our lease terms.

Under his management (now 11 years long), the flats in our seafront Grade II listed terrace of four Victorian houses fetch the lowest prices in our modest town.

As if that were not enough to get up my nose, this manager has locked me out of the loft above my flat, to which our Lease privileges me (as it privileges the three other flat owners who have a loft) as the person with the sole right of entry to it.

I am almost finished preparing my plea to the FTT(Prop) to dismiss this manager, and appoint a qualified one to our company. However, I am worried that I might harm my company by creating problems at Companies House with my FTT(Prop) appeal.

Will that happen? Please, however, do not advise me to seek a solicitor’s help. Only the company law specialists among them know this ground. I have already burnt my fingers twice on solicitors who purport to know it, but haven’t a clue.

Thanks,

Sophie


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Sophie Johnson

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19:26 PM, 13th May 2024, About 6 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 13/05/2024 - 18:07Hello Kizzi,
'The freehold shared by all leaseholders has no value and obviously as it’s jointly owned a lender won’t lend on it.'
A freehold as you describe it shows that there is no landlord. To put it another way: Our company's Freehold Title Absolute lists all our shareholders' Leasehold Titles Absolute. - that and nothing and nobody else. That shows that our shareholders collectively are our company. So no need for piercing any veil.
We have a company lease, not individual leases. It binds all of us. It is a brilliantly designed lease made by the barrister who was our landlord until we bought him out.
The governing statutes under which our Lease exists are the Land Registration Act 2002 and the Land Registration Rules 2003.
Our Lease is held by the Land Registry. The LL and T Act has no role vis-a-vis our Lease. Our Lease is NOT a contract between our shareholders and a landlord: We do not have a landlord.
The 'info on the freehold interest' is explicit on our company's Title.

Sophie Johnson

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19:55 PM, 13th May 2024, About 6 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Kizzie at 13/05/2024 - 18:07
Kizzi, I forgot this:
'The man co holds the freehold to common areas as a separate legal entity and grants a lease to each flat in a block.'
No, no, no! Be careful. If a company retains any property, it is subject to the land and STD taxes. So our position must be that we, the shareholder owners of the freehold of our property, own everything of our property. So our Lease demises our flats to each of the holders of Leasehold Titles Absolute. Other private spaces, like lofts and verandas, are in the exclusive use of the flat owners who live below a loft, and the the flat alongside which a veranda runs. The remaining spaces, natural commonholds like the stairways, the the halls, the garden, the roof, the lifts, are our collective responsibility to maintain. By nature, those spaces cannot become exclusive spaces. We all contribute to their upkeep. Our Lease makes that abundantly clear.

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