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Hi All,
I'm writing this as a warning and to show just how unlucky and unfair one can be under specific circumstances.
I'm a very high functioning autistic, used to get earn in the top 10%. In 2017 I moved into a leasehold flat to get on the property ladder. The development had a Management Company which employed a Managing Agent as their agent and the lease instructed everyone to contact the Managing Agent for lease enforcement as they are responsible for lease compliance.
My upstairs neighbour was in a lease breach by not having covering. For anyone living in a flat with a carpet breach in the flat above, I don't need to explain the kind of noise transmitted from day to day activities. In my case even with headphones I could still hear thumps and vibration noises etc.
I asked the Managing Agent to investigate in 2018 and specifically told them it's starting to affect my mental health, it's a serious problem for me, can't enjoy my proprety at all and I'm having a hard time at work, nothing came of it. I told them directly in 2019 to enforce the lease, they ignored me. I tried to live with the noise but in early 2020 a series of strange physical symptoms set it. Doctors after doctors and a year later the root cause was identified as phycological stress with somatic symptoms and the breach was the main cause.
Confronting the neighbours about this they admitted to not having any covering and with this information I went to the Managing Agent asking for lease enforcement and expressly stated my health was in critical condition because of the breach. The Managing agent told the tenant in breach to keep his floors uncovered and ignored our request again. This caused me trauma and the start of a panic attack disorder when hearing impact/footfall noise. I couldn't be in the living room or bedroom from that point because of intrusive thoughts, shaking, heart palpitations, distress, dizziness etc.
What followed was a degradation of my health, a diagnosis of a mental health injury which I shared with the Managing Agent but they were still utterly incompetent about the whole thing and said if it's not a statuary nuisance, they won't do anything. I even went to a solicitor for help and they sent a letter but their bottom line was it's easier if I move as the courts won't do anything for such cases. I couldn't physically be in the flat anymore because of panic attacks and hallucinations and saw no option but to move out. I still had to fix the breach to sell the flat and the Agent pretty much threatened me to pay up or else and so I paid £300 to fix my neighbour's breach.
As a result of the Managing Agent's incompetence I'm left with cPTSD, Panic Attack Disorder, GAD, my Autism is much worse, previous subclinical ADHD is now an impairment and needs medication. Finally I developed Fibromyalgia from the whole emotional trauma, all my doctors agree my various illnesses are due to stress and anxiety from the breach. I was dissociated for over a year where you and the world around doesn't feel real, the experience of wanting to remove your face is indescribable. I haven't been able to work since and had to use all my savings to buy a detached house in a quite area to not bounce off the walls. The previous flat was almost payed but now I have a new 30 year mortgage. I fully admit my eggshell personality is what made me sensitive to such a high level of intrusive noise even if I didn't then(Autism was diagnosed after the events when it was easily visible). To be clear, I've lived in flats all my live and this was the 7th and last flat.
Here's where Leasehold sucks.
Firstly, the Managing Agent, which I'm forced to deal with according to the lease has no duty of care to me. The Management Company is the client and who they have duty of care to and I feel it's wrong to be a one way street, they have no liability for any incompetence and negligence towards me but I can only deal with them. This way the Management Company and the Agent can throw liability around and no one ends up to blame.
Secondly, the lease is a contract and even if you suffer catastrophic, life changing injuries because of a breach which the enforcer doesn't want to enforce, you get the same compensation as a trivial inconvenience.
Let me put the above in a different way, you buy a leasehold, there's a breach and you tell the company who is supposed to enforce that the breach will cause you cancer and you won't be able to work so please enforce it urgently. They don't enforce it at your repeated requests and you develop cancer and can't work. In this case they're liable for the same general damages as if the communal antena didn't work and you can't watch TV. In the eyes of the law the level of negligence or personal damage or financial loss doesn't matter as all breach damages are treated basically same.
The above is because according to law, any special knowledge needs to be known when signing the contract, there's no possibility to do so when purchasing a leasehold so the victim is left without any remedy. In the eyes of the law, if you have any disability you shouldn't own or live in a property because if your disability is being affected by a breach it just "sucks to be you". There's no liability for companies not doing their job or contractual obligation even if they know the risk of not doing so. In my case I told the agent repeatedly the breach is affecting my mental health, then that I got a mental health injury by their action of allowing the breach to continue and the damage was done. You don't even get any compensation for the medication you need from the result of their contractual breach.
Foreseeability when signing a contract also sucks because there's no definition what can be foreseeable for breaching a clause which is designed to fix other clauses. Nothing can be forseed so anything goes. In my case the agent knew about the risk for over three years, foreseeability is there to protect the wrongdoer in contract, but as the wrongdoer in my case failed for over three years, there was ample time to protect themselves and take action yet this isn't taken into account in law. Managing agent have free reign to cause as much damage in contract with no repercussions at all.
Thirdly, a material breach of a typical contract will result in the whole contract being void. Not with leaseholds where my management company/agent can breach the enforcement clause which is the security of all clauses, meaning all covenants are at risk but you cannot resend the contract.
What about a personal injury claim you might ask? Well, no because the law is stupid here. PI is a tort and if it happens because of lease breach, which is a contract, any damages can only be assessed in contract law which are close to nothing. And I can't claim PI against the negligence of the Managing Agent because they don't have a duty of care to me even if I'm forced to only deal with them.
My barrister said I've been incredibly unlucky about the whole situation but the law can't help me. The claim is solid and a judge is likely to be sympathetic under the circumstances but my compensation is at a level where it's not worth to claim. Counsel confirmed I've done everything right and everything adds up:
1. There was a breach
2. I asked for enforcement in the right way according to the lease
3. The Agent failed to take any action and knew of the health implications from the very first email
4. My health injury is a direct result of the breach of contract.
Leasehold crippled me and ruined my life and I can't do anything about it, I can't even recover the stamp duty from being force to move because of a breach.
I, as a layman think the law is faulty as this is one of the very few cases where the victim is left worse off.
All precedents which prohibit me from claiming are commercial or business to business and concurrent liability makes complete sense for entities on the same level. I feel in a business to consumer case where there's a disadvantage of position and knowledge from the consumer, such cases of special knowledge being given to prevent a personal injury should be considered if the known risk happens.
My case goes against the core principle of law where if you know your action or inaction will cause a personal injury, you are liable because duty of care is created. For some reason if a known injury happens in a leasehold this principle of care doesn't apply and I have no way to protect myself.
I'm writing this as a warning and to show just how unlucky and unfair one can be under specific circumstances.
I'm a very high functioning autistic, used to get earn in the top 10%. In 2017 I moved into a leasehold flat to get on the property ladder. The development had a Management Company which employed a Managing Agent as their agent and the lease instructed everyone to contact the Managing Agent for lease enforcement as they are responsible for lease compliance.
My upstairs neighbour was in a lease breach by not having covering. For anyone living in a flat with a carpet breach in the flat above, I don't need to explain the kind of noise transmitted from day to day activities. In my case even with headphones I could still hear thumps and vibration noises etc.
I asked the Managing Agent to investigate in 2018 and specifically told them it's starting to affect my mental health, it's a serious problem for me, can't enjoy my proprety at all and I'm having a hard time at work, nothing came of it. I told them directly in 2019 to enforce the lease, they ignored me. I tried to live with the noise but in early 2020 a series of strange physical symptoms set it. Doctors after doctors and a year later the root cause was identified as phycological stress with somatic symptoms and the breach was the main cause.
Confronting the neighbours about this they admitted to not having any covering and with this information I went to the Managing Agent asking for lease enforcement and expressly stated my health was in critical condition because of the breach. The Managing agent told the tenant in breach to keep his floors uncovered and ignored our request again. This caused me trauma and the start of a panic attack disorder when hearing impact/footfall noise. I couldn't be in the living room or bedroom from that point because of intrusive thoughts, shaking, heart palpitations, distress, dizziness etc.
What followed was a degradation of my health, a diagnosis of a mental health injury which I shared with the Managing Agent but they were still utterly incompetent about the whole thing and said if it's not a statuary nuisance, they won't do anything. I even went to a solicitor for help and they sent a letter but their bottom line was it's easier if I move as the courts won't do anything for such cases. I couldn't physically be in the flat anymore because of panic attacks and hallucinations and saw no option but to move out. I still had to fix the breach to sell the flat and the Agent pretty much threatened me to pay up or else and so I paid £300 to fix my neighbour's breach.
As a result of the Managing Agent's incompetence I'm left with cPTSD, Panic Attack Disorder, GAD, my Autism is much worse, previous subclinical ADHD is now an impairment and needs medication. Finally I developed Fibromyalgia from the whole emotional trauma, all my doctors agree my various illnesses are due to stress and anxiety from the breach. I was dissociated for over a year where you and the world around doesn't feel real, the experience of wanting to remove your face is indescribable. I haven't been able to work since and had to use all my savings to buy a detached house in a quite area to not bounce off the walls. The previous flat was almost payed but now I have a new 30 year mortgage. I fully admit my eggshell personality is what made me sensitive to such a high level of intrusive noise even if I didn't then(Autism was diagnosed after the events when it was easily visible). To be clear, I've lived in flats all my live and this was the 7th and last flat.
Here's where Leasehold sucks.
Firstly, the Managing Agent, which I'm forced to deal with according to the lease has no duty of care to me. The Management Company is the client and who they have duty of care to and I feel it's wrong to be a one way street, they have no liability for any incompetence and negligence towards me but I can only deal with them. This way the Management Company and the Agent can throw liability around and no one ends up to blame.
Secondly, the lease is a contract and even if you suffer catastrophic, life changing injuries because of a breach which the enforcer doesn't want to enforce, you get the same compensation as a trivial inconvenience.
Let me put the above in a different way, you buy a leasehold, there's a breach and you tell the company who is supposed to enforce that the breach will cause you cancer and you won't be able to work so please enforce it urgently. They don't enforce it at your repeated requests and you develop cancer and can't work. In this case they're liable for the same general damages as if the communal antena didn't work and you can't watch TV. In the eyes of the law the level of negligence or personal damage or financial loss doesn't matter as all breach damages are treated basically same.
The above is because according to law, any special knowledge needs to be known when signing the contract, there's no possibility to do so when purchasing a leasehold so the victim is left without any remedy. In the eyes of the law, if you have any disability you shouldn't own or live in a property because if your disability is being affected by a breach it just "sucks to be you". There's no liability for companies not doing their job or contractual obligation even if they know the risk of not doing so. In my case I told the agent repeatedly the breach is affecting my mental health, then that I got a mental health injury by their action of allowing the breach to continue and the damage was done. You don't even get any compensation for the medication you need from the result of their contractual breach.
Foreseeability when signing a contract also sucks because there's no definition what can be foreseeable for breaching a clause which is designed to fix other clauses. Nothing can be forseed so anything goes. In my case the agent knew about the risk for over three years, foreseeability is there to protect the wrongdoer in contract, but as the wrongdoer in my case failed for over three years, there was ample time to protect themselves and take action yet this isn't taken into account in law. Managing agent have free reign to cause as much damage in contract with no repercussions at all.
Thirdly, a material breach of a typical contract will result in the whole contract being void. Not with leaseholds where my management company/agent can breach the enforcement clause which is the security of all clauses, meaning all covenants are at risk but you cannot resend the contract.
What about a personal injury claim you might ask? Well, no because the law is stupid here. PI is a tort and if it happens because of lease breach, which is a contract, any damages can only be assessed in contract law which are close to nothing. And I can't claim PI against the negligence of the Managing Agent because they don't have a duty of care to me even if I'm forced to only deal with them.
My barrister said I've been incredibly unlucky about the whole situation but the law can't help me. The claim is solid and a judge is likely to be sympathetic under the circumstances but my compensation is at a level where it's not worth to claim. Counsel confirmed I've done everything right and everything adds up:
1. There was a breach
2. I asked for enforcement in the right way according to the lease
3. The Agent failed to take any action and knew of the health implications from the very first email
4. My health injury is a direct result of the breach of contract.
Leasehold crippled me and ruined my life and I can't do anything about it, I can't even recover the stamp duty from being force to move because of a breach.
I, as a layman think the law is faulty as this is one of the very few cases where the victim is left worse off.
All precedents which prohibit me from claiming are commercial or business to business and concurrent liability makes complete sense for entities on the same level. I feel in a business to consumer case where there's a disadvantage of position and knowledge from the consumer, such cases of special knowledge being given to prevent a personal injury should be considered if the known risk happens.
My case goes against the core principle of law where if you know your action or inaction will cause a personal injury, you are liable because duty of care is created. For some reason if a known injury happens in a leasehold this principle of care doesn't apply and I have no way to protect myself.
