Joint freeholders but breach of covenant- how to resolve?

[londonlad]

Hi there to all. I'll try and keep it brief but it's a bit of a story. I own with my partner a garden flat in a converted house, the other flat is upstairs, The owner of the flat upstairs Mr S and I are joint freeholders for the building. His flat is always rented, I rented mine for a while, came back, but now want to possibly rent again. 3 years ago we had lots of problems caused by bad maintenance upstairs (leaks etc), and the owner Mr S, refused to sort them. His many tenants have also broken the lease time and time again by fixing up satellite dishes etc. We spent £1000 with a solicitor trying to track Mr S down in Saudi where he works, but got as far as his solicitor who admits his client was 'hiding' (although he didn't hide when it came to buying a share of the freehold). We've had no further contact.
We now want to move but are not sure whether to rent our flat or sell it, because we are worried as Mr S does not keep to the freehold he signed. The roof now also needs work. Our leases state we are jointly responsible for the whole building, but while I have looked after the areas I can, I can't pay for a new roof on my own and hope to get the money back off someone who doesn't care.
What can we do? Can we get the lease rewritten so we look after just the ground floor, but would this need his approval as joint freeholder? We haven't got pots of cash to keep chasing him with solicitors. We'd like to keep our flat as a long-term rental investment but are considering selling only because of Mr S's disgraceful behaviour and the building is not being maintained.

Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated....

[Poppy]

Because of the lack of good relations, you may consider the follow way forward.


Obtain a short written report from someone qualified to declare that in their professional opinion the roof needs to be renewed. This is essential because if it merely requires maintenance a lot of money will be saved all round.
Ideally also obtain a specification of the work.
Keep the invoice and proof of payment for this opinion.
Obtain two written quotations based on the specification.
Send copies of everything to your fellow freeholder along with your own invoice for half the money spent so far and a covering letter asking for alternative proposals.
From this you should gauge any response received.

Perhaps you should directly ask the freeholder why did they buy the property if they do not intend to maintain it properly. Or is that too contentious? Try finding a way to word it so that it sounds like everything done is in their interest.

You cannot unilaterally rewrite the lease.

[Markonee1]

Surely a damaged roof will affect the upstairs flat first? Don't be confused by holes you can see by looking up from the ground; remember rain comes from above and what looks bad from below are natural ventilation. Its a big builders scam else all chimneys should be capped!
Unless your tenant neighbours are 'terrible' try persuading them to complain to their landlord!
Regards
Mark

[Worldlife]

It seems to be this property will be difficult to sell with a defective roof and potential problems between the freeholders in resolving the repair works.

What do others think of my viewpoint and suggestions here?

If londonland manages to sell the property with this dispute unresolved then I think there could be future repercussions if current correspondence is not declared and the new purchaser is unable to complete roof repairs.

If correspondence is already in the pipeline then I therefore have a few additional suggestions to add to those of Poppy:-


The relevant clauses in the freehold concerning repair responsibilites are quoted.

Suggest that unless agreement is reached within 28 days (or such alternative period agreed between the freeholders) for the work to go ahead you will undertake the works at your expense. Such costs plus interest charges of 'x' per cent will be recorded in correspondence that will be declared on any future sale of the freehold or leases.

Without prejudice to paragraph 2 you will hold the other freeholder liable for any costs (and the interest from such costs until paid) arising from the failure by a prospective vendor failing to complete purchase of the property because of outstanding repairs and the freeholders not complying with the conditions of the freehold.

[londonlad]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I might stress that there is no correspondence at present, there hasn't been for almost 3 years when we had the solicitor try and contact him, and there was no interest or reply from him. If we were to sell tomorrow, what would there be to declare?

There are tiles missing from the roof, so yes, his loft space will be the first to be affected. I guess then that once his upper part of the house starts getting damp HE will ask us to pay towards the new roof, but I want him to realise that we had to spend £1000 just to try and find him contact him and get him to fix the damage caused by his tenants. In fact, we'd like this £1000 pounds to be taken off the cost of a new roof. But I definitely will NOT pay for the roof myself hoping to get half payment back from him - it could be £3,000 to £5,000, and I just can't afford the financial risk.

Poppy- yes I have tried to be direct and pleasant with him, but he has in the past just dismissed things, saying that I was discussing 'petty' issues!

I can't afford to have a solicitoror draft all these letters. Can I do them myself?

Anyway, I worry for the future. This man has several properties and is obviously in it just for the investment, and doesn't care about us. It seems to us that he can do what he wants, whereas we can do nothing about the situation unless we have thousands of pounds to chase him through a solicitor.

Is there nothing I can do through the local court system to make him carry out his responsibilities?
Thanks again for all your advice...

[Poppy]

I can't afford to have a solicitoror draft all these letters. Can I do them myself?
Yes of course you can draft letters yourself. Neither myself, Markonee1 nor Worldlife is suggesting otherwise. We are all advocating that you continue as far as possible in a DIY fashion.

Is there nothing I can do through the local court system to make him carry out his responsibilities?
Yes of course you can bring about court action to make him comply with the lease. However you can only make him comply with current issues. Any potential court order cannot predict what his future breaches may be.

To open another front, is his flat mortgaged/charged? You can find this out for £2 using the Land Registry (http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/kb/Default.asp?ToDo=view&questId=8&catId=2) website. If so, you should write to his lender and tell them that their borrower is in breach of the lease and you will take legal action to remedy the breach which may lead to forfeiture.

Keep at him. Stretch the truth where necessary to prompt a response. Can’t hurt! ;)

[Markonee1]

I agree with Poppy that an informed mortgage Co could be a powerful lever.

Also a judgement in the small claims court against him for your costs would be 'influential' as it sticks for 6 years I believe.

Back to this problem roof. How do you know that it needs renewing? A few missing tiles can be replaced. The fact that damp hasn't happened yet means the problem is recent. One of those satellite dish fitters did it maybe?

It may well be that replacement will suffice. £10 for the tiles or less plus a little payment to someone honest to fit them. Going down the route of litigation will make it harder to sell in the future.

Bite the bullet and rerent out otherwise; as his flat will have to get pretty damp before it reaches you!
good luck
Mark