-
Obvious question, what does the lease say?
It defines my domain as:
ALL THOSE several rooms known as Flat B on the First Floor or the Building up to and including the ceiling plaster and including the floor covering the floors and including the plaster of the external walls and further the internal walls dividing the rooms and parts of the flat and one half (severed vertically) of the internal walls of the said Flat dividing the Flat from any common parts of the Building including the front door of the Flat (which for the purposes of identification are shown on the plan or plans annexed hereto and thereon edged red)
Basically the inside of the flat and the walls within the flat, up to the ceiling plaster.
Roof isn't specifically mentioned... but I'm currently looking through it carefully and comparing to the lease of downstairs.
Found mention of the roof... it's in both my lease and the lease of downstairs in the same wording:
The Lessor will whenever reasonably necessary maintain repair and redecorate and renew:
(a) The external walls and structures and in particular the load bearing walls and foundations joists roof storage tanks gutters and rainwater pipes of the Building
(b) The gas and water mains pipes drains and electric mains cables wires in under and upon the Building or any part thereof or any part of the Building or any part thereof and enjoyed or used by the Lessee in common with the lessees of other parts of the Building
So it appears to be a shared cost... we own from our paint / plaster inside... and share all structural and building costs.
Velocio-
Yes, sounds shared. The other thing to look for is whether the lease has any more on responsibilities to repair, etc which you could use to force renewal rather than repair.
As has been said, now may be a good time to push for buying the freehold and sorting things out properly. Personally I had the share of freehold with the other flat and it worked out very well for us. From the roof aspect I replaced the whole roof at my cost but combined that with a loft conversion (it still needed the permission of the other freeholder but it wasn't costing him anything and I was putting a new roof on so he was fine with it).
aggi
Obvious question, what does the lease say?
In my situation I owned the upstairs flat of a house conversion and I was responsible for all roof repair costs and, from what I gather, this isn't uncommon in London.
Bad for costs of repairing a roof. Good for adding a loft conversion.