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Howard
sacredhart
Apologies for the long post:
What would you do in this situation:
I own a leasehold ground Floor flat. The owner of the upstairs flat is the freeholder of both flats.
In my leasehold it states the freeholder can levy a ‘annual service charge’ for building upkeep.
For 4 years we had an informal arrangement where if a job needed doing we would split the cost. The Freeholder’s brother lives in the flat upstairs and has some issues. Freeholder lives miles away so it’s me who has been flagging up stuff that needs to be done. I’ve also overseen some of the work and done a fair bit myself offer without bothering the freeholder. This included rebuilding the subfloor and floor in our flat as it was completely rotten, I didn’t ask them for a penny for this. We don’t have a great relationship, I think they find us annoying as they’d rather not get involved with the flat and we find them annoying as they have ignored several emails on a few minor issues.
6 months ago the freeholder emailed us and said they want to appoint a management company to take over managing the building. We objected but they did it anyway. This is a terrace house split into two one bed flats. No front garden to speak of, the back garden is ours and we have turned it from a pile of dirt into something rather nice. The communal hallway is tiny. The roof I had checked last year. I clean the gutters.
The list of things the management company stated they would do is
Arrange buildings insurance ( this is set up we pay it annually)
Carry out regular inspections of the property (haven’t seen them in 6 months. The only way they could inspect the rear of the building is through our flat so I know they haven’t been. they were managing our flat before we bought it and It was completely fucked, the floor was about to fall in.)
Manage a small fund of money for future work
Get quotes for work needed.
Clean communal areas at an extra charge (I do this)
We have ignored this situation until now but freeholder and management co are now asking for payment stating they have been employed for 6 months now.
I don’t give a fuck about the freeholder as they’ve been a dick about the whole hing but My concern is I’m planning on selling as soon as I can relocate with work and I want everything in order.
Interested to hear opinions.
Cheers