Help needed on terms of lease

[Anthony72]

I own a leasehold maisonette, it is one in a block of 8 , four groundfloor and 4 first floor. In the lease it states that the garden area is communal and no structures should be built . Over the last few years people have started to hive off parts of the garden for them selves and put up sheds and summerhouses. I must admit although I have not put anything up I keep to one part myself.

I am thinking of selling but wonder if this will effect the valuation and if I or anyone could insist that the garden was returned to communal use.

My downstairs neighbour built a summerhouse with permission and it means that she has 'taken' a bigger proportion of the garden than would be right leaving me with a smaller proportion.

I dont really want to antagonise the neighbours but want to maximise my selling price.

[Diana M]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

In the lease it states that the garden area is communal and no structures should be built . Over the last few years people have started to hive off parts of the garden for them selves .

The lease rules.

If other lessees have gone 'off piste' then that's their problem but it could become your problem when it comes to selling your property.

Are you in touch with your Freeholder and is there a Managing Agent involved. Who do you pay your service charges (and any Ground Rent?) to?

Land Registry holds the Title Plan of all leases. If it ain't on the Title Plan (demised) then the lessee doesn't own that bit of land.

Di

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

A service charge has just recently been started with managing agents . I pay the service charge direct to the agents. The is no ground rent as I extended the lease a few years ago.

Are you saying that it might cause a problem if and when I sell

[Diana M]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Are you saying that it might cause a problem if and when I sell

I'm saying it has the potential to cause problems when you come to sell.

Di

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Hello Di

Thanks for the reply
I may will think of what my best move is, maybe a lette to the agents pointing out the non compliance with the lease

[Diana M]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

maybe a lette to the agents pointing out the non compliance with the lease

Or consider whether you would like to do the same as the other lessees and then you all have the situation formalized (bits of the garden demised to each lease) by the Freeholder.

If you club together to buy the Freehold then you will effectively be in a position to give yourselves permission to do this. Strictly speaking anyone with a mortgage will have to inform their lender of the change.

It depends on the size of the communal area and access, but having a dedicated 'outside space' can be more valuable than sharing a plot over which you have no control of who comes and goes etc.

Just a thought

Di

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

A bit of thinking to do , thanks for your help

[Diana M]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Another thing to consider is whether those lessees who may have erected fences to define their own 'space' (in a communal area according to your lease) and/or erected summer houses/gazebos etc have the potential to claim possessory title if the legal situation goes unchallenged for the required number of years.

Di

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Hi
Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to reply, been trying to get hold of the original lease, all I have is a rather battered copy. £35 +VAT from the solicitor or £7 from the land registry

To be honest I think there will be a second coming before some of the others talk or cooperate with me, after all it was them that shouted at me for walking over 'their' garden after I had a gate put in. The complained to the freeholder at that point, about 3 years ago who put it in writing that the garden was communal and no one had a bit that was 'theirs'

I have today emailed the managing agent asking for clarification, we are being charged quite a lot of money for them to manage the lease and one of their jobs is to enforce the lease so we will see what happens.

I looked on a website that said it would currently cost me about £25 to buy my share of the freehold and others a few grand (assuming they have not extended the lease) The cost for extending the lease was about what I paid.

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

I have been doing a bit of snooping and wasting my money. There have been rumours going around that people have extended their lease , to my knowledge, I am the only one and am almost certain that the freeholders told one of the others that I had extended the lease although they tried to hide behind the fact it is perfect knowledge. The think is the rumours are accurate about the price I paid.

Anyway I checked the land registry fro the two i thought were most likely to have extended , neither have according to the land registry and as such have leases of 63 years left. One of the properties however states that the owner is the current owner but that the lessee is a previous owner, I wonder if that is just an error on the part of the land registry or is it possible to sell a lease hold property but not to sell the lease.

Any thoughts?

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Hi again
Received a readable copy of the lease which confirms what I knew anyway
Also had an email from the managing agents agreeing with my opinion that should I wish for the structures to be removed it would have to be enforced, and that the gardens are communal.

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Hi
Sorry to ask even more questions

In April this year the freeholders employed a managing agent to manage the 8 maisonettes. A bill was sent asking for monthly service charge to be paid, as I had never paid this service charge since moving in I did investigate and found out that it was legit.

The service charge included the agents fees, a 'sink' fund for repairing the road , costs of auditors and a charge for the buildings insurance. Now this was started in April although the buildings insurance runs July - july .

Today I have got home to find a bill for next years buildings insurance from the freeholders . a cost that is included in the service charge.


I am assuming it is just a clerical error but am painfully aware of the forfeiture clauses within the lease and while I am sure this wouldn't reasonably trigger such action , just want the best advice.

Thanks

[Diana M]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

The lease should spell out how the Service Charges should be dealt with. It should say when they ought to be "demanded" which can be quarterly, half-yearly or annually.

If they're paid monthly this may be an informal arrangement with the Managing Agent to ease cash flow for the Lessees.

Some leases also state that the "Landlord" (i.e. the Freeholder) should provide an estimate for the coming year and then you are sent a Service Charge Demand based on that prediction. Even if that's not in the lease the agent will probably do it anyway.

If there's not enough money in the kitty due to an unforeseen item (burst pipes etc.) then you will be sent an Interim Service Charge Demand to balance the books until the next quarterly, half-yearly or annual demand is due.

If your buildings insurance runs from July to July then a pro rata payment would usually be demanded. However, buildings insurance is normally invoiced annually in advance so the whole lot will have to be paid upfront unless the insurance provider agrees to monthly instalments for which a hefty admin fee will be added. This may be why the agent wants the your contribution in advance in order to save you money further down the line.

Di

[Crazy council]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Hi
In April this year the freeholders employed a managing agent to manage the 8 maisonettes. A bill was sent asking for monthly service charge to be paid, as I had never paid this service charge since moving in I did investigate and found out that it was legit.

The service charge included the agents fees, a 'sink' fund for repairing the road , costs of auditors and a charge for the buildings insurance. Now this was started in April although the buildings insurance runs July - july . Today I have got home to find a bill for next years buildings insurance from the freeholders . a cost that is included in the service charge.
Thanks

Hi, when managing leases, you usually have a block insurance with higher policy excess fees . . You collect a sub fund to covert any immediate damages, fees or maintainece costs, and then replace out of any insurance monies paid, fees collected So its not uncommon to pay for an insurance fund ( till it reaches a minimum ) and insurance as well. When the agents started charging you, you should have had documentation that details all there allowable fees and charges.

[Anthony72]

Re: Help needed on terms of lease

Not sure how clear I was

The insurance last for July 2015-July 2016 was paid up front in July 15

From April 2016 when the service charges started it has included 1/12th of the insurance premium calculated on last years cost each month.

I have now received a bill from the freeholders for the insurance for 2016-2017, but as an amount is already included in the service charge it seems to be a mistake. I many ways I would rather pay upfront and not have it in the service charge so in this case I would owe the insurance premium - the 4 payments they have received on 1st of each month

However
The management company are not that efficient, it took 4 attempts for them to send the correct bank details through into which to send the service fee payments.

It is all a bit odd that for 36 years there has been no service charge and all of a sudden there is

The director of the management agents also has an email address at the freeholders i.e lee@freeholders.co.uk. Makes me wonder if they are connected but can't see anything at the moment on companies house