Owning your own home

Know this feeling. Something like ‘working until March just for the section 20 notice’ was my experience.

Leasehold question, probably for @danstuff and @BleakRefs :

The agent of the freeholder is doing mostly external, communal works on the block. Part of this work involves doing work on the balconies of each property in the block. The balconies are inbuilt, rather than exterior overhanging. The work involves surveying the balcony walls for cracks and defects, removing the offending plasterwork, then making good. 'then making good' is an assumption on which I bloody well hope I'm right on.

So the question: what kind of permission does the freeholder or their agent require from the leaseholder in order to do the work on the balconies....on an ad-hoc schedule over the course of a month?

• is simply telling the leaseholders they will be doing the work OK?
  
• do they need to be specific about the dates / timescale?
  
• does the leaseholder need to expressly give their permission?
  
• or is it ok for the agent to say 'if you don't give your permission please tell us'
  
  

The question hinges on my assumption that the balconies, unlike say the communal stairwell, are the 'property' of the leaseholder, and that permission is required to 'enter' them.

2nd viewing also a car crash. Lots and lots to go.

Who are the forum approved conveyancers again?

Ones I used last time were £750 + VAT. Now it's £2500 + VAT. Seems like a bit of a crazy hike.

Depends whether the balcony is in fact part of the premises demised by the lease - it's likely it is but not guaranteed and may not include the structure of the balcony - and if it is then the landlord's rights of access and the scope of the landlord's repairing obligations depend on the terms of the lease. Without a copy of the lease it's not possible to answer the question.

It would also depend on whether the works require access to the balcony itself or could or will be done externally without actually going onto the balcony at all.

Still waiting. Tempts me sack this running a business lark off and just get a job. Am in my FIFTH stage of underwriting from lender - they keep coming back and asking for more info. Fucking nuts. We're asking for a 65%ltv, have a serious chunk of cash, decent incomes. Was expecting a relative breeze compared to the last time. Came back yesterday to ask for something directly from my accountant even though he's sent all the usual gumpf but they want a "hand written personal reference" imeanfuckingwhat... Christ knows what he's going to charge me for that.

Another hitch - solicitor calls and tell me on Thurs eve they never received my instruction forms (!?!??!??!!). So I had to print their emailed copies and next-day them.

L&C have been shit and slow and missed obvious things that have slowed it up. Solicitor has been slow (I've been in regular contact with them and that was the first time they mentioned it since I 'instructed' over the phone on the 7th march). Lender has been bizarre.

On the side I'm going to apply directly to a building society just to have more eggs in case one hatches faster? Unless this is a stupid idea? L&C guy seemed to think it wouldn't matter if lender saw you'd been credit checked for another lender.

Just to add we had major works completed on our estate last year, roof, windows, some concrete repair and asbestos removal. The estimate was £27,000 for us and up to £47,000 for the places with larger ratable amounts.

Sucks you're still going through this shit...

Unless this is a stupid idea?

This may affect the other application depending on what stage it's at. Both searches into your credit history will show on reports...

Thank you - suspected the answer might be it depends .

Fwiw they do have to ‘enter’ the balcony.

Asked the foreman to get his lads to knock on the front door the next time they need to work on it to give us a bit of notice on the basis of 10 week old baby and freaked out* mum. They said they would - will believe it when I see it :)

* more like slightly irked - to be fair

£47,000

That’s got to sting

That's what I thought and I flagged it with l&c and they said it wouldn't be a problem - "just suggests you're shopping around."

One for the millenials

I've never seen a TRA meeting so full of livid people as the one that followed those estimates being received.

Ha, this was hidden in the T&Cs:

If we don’t sell enough tickets.
After fees and operating costs, the remaining money will be split 50/50 between charity and a cash prize pool.

If the number of fully paid entries to the Competition at the Closing Date is less than 200,000 fully paid entries, the Competition will close and the total proceeds of the Competition Entry Fees received by the Promoter will, at the sole discretion of the Promoter:

At £5 a ticket that's £1m. Seems fairly much no lose for the house-owner and the charity.

Interesting. What happened in the end? Everyone made to cough up, or were challenges made, and were any successful?

I would never own another flat again. It is a licence to rape you senseless. The service charge on my one bed flat in bow was 2600 quid yearly (no parking, no porter no nothing ). And every year without fail it went up, and I was asked for 2/300 quid as a balancing payment . The residents in my block are also going to get a shock in 4/5 years time when they get the bill for the internal redecorate and new carpets which is on the cards. That'll be , at a guess, a request for something between £2-3k per flat. That's before the roof need any serious work.

Leasehold / Share of Freehold stuff is OK - provided you know the right questions to ask and how to ask them. Granted, that's not much use in a sellers market apart from identifying bullets to dodge, but now things have changed.

Challenges were made and after the initial 'we followed procedure and put it out to tender to ensure best value... but there's only a handful of companies that can take on a project of this size...' the estimate was revised down, then revised again up but still less than the initial. As it stands with all works having been completed and charges for it having been placed on our accounts it looks like they've overcharged about 20% which there was another TRA meeting to discuss at the end of February that I was unable to attend but have now requested the minutes on multiple occasions and received no reply after having previously contacted them about the appearance of an overcharge and being fobbed off.

Just gets better - there's no vacant possession on the house. Some guy appears to be living there and not wanting to move out (think it's more legally complicated than that - though to what end is being investigated).

Knew it was too good to be true. At least if it falls through it won't be our fault - still lawyers fees etc to get this far is annoying.

And then they sell 3 tickets and can't even recoup website costs.

Just gets better - there's no vacant possession on the house. Some guy appears to be living there and not wanting to move out (think it's more legally complicated than that - though to what end is being investigated).

My money is on one of those old long term secure tenancies, thereby granting the guy permission to live there for life.

dude...

I sold it for 185k more than I paid for it after owning it for 3 years so I do forgive it some faults.

I've used Caroline Sherry from Glazer Delmar on recommendation from the forum as have others. Outstanding but not cheap.