Evening.. I was going to post this in the property section but thought there would be more traffic here. Just wondering if anyone has been through a similar situation and what was the outcome?
I’m a first time buyer purchasing a first floor flat on my own. The lady who is selling the property inherited it from her mother who lived there for 20 years. There is a mix of houses and flats on the street, however only my downstairs neighbour and I are leasehold, whilst all the other properties (including the flats) are freehold. When I went to view the property I asked the EA if there were any services charges and they explained that the management/maintenance company no longer existed. In the 20 years that the woman lived there she never had to pay any service charge nor did anyone request any payment from her. The daughter has tried to contact the company multiples times but has not been able to get in touch with anyone, so she believes that it has dissolved. I believe this to be true as all the communal areas are overflowing with weeds etc and it is clear that no one has maintained it for some time now. The gardens are kept tidy, grass cut etc but that’s because the neighbours do it themselves.
All searches have come back and I’ve had my report but my solicitor is still awaiting a response from the other side in regards to this issue. The vendors solicitor didn’t send sufficient documentation in regards to this other than “the sellers mother hasn’t paid any service charges for 20 years and we believe the company has now dissolved”. They’ve told us that they will have an indemnity policy put in the contract to protect me incase someone tries to come after me in the future and demand payment. My solicitor isn’t happy with this and has said she doesn’t think the mortgage lender will be either. I don’t understand all this legal talk but I went into her office today and she gave me a few examples which helped me understand the severity of it.
1. The management company own the outside of the property and are suppose to insure it. Because the company no longer exists the building is currently uninsured and if both flats went up in flames/flooded etc we’d be screwed.
2. The management company are responsible for dealing with any repairs etc. We are suppose to pay a monthly service charge to them and in return they deal with any repairs. Because they no longer exist there is no agreement in place which explains who is responsible for what and who pays for what. I’m on the first floor and if a slate fell off my roof and there was water gushing through my ceiling, technically both my neighbour and I would be responsible for paying for the repairs but they could just tell me to piss off and there’s nothing that I could do about it. If the management company was still active it would be their responsibility to enforce that they pay half the bill. The same could apply if they came to me with an issue, I could just tell them to get lost.
3. Similar to the above issue. If my downstairs neighbour was playing loud music until 1am, the only thing I could do is go down there and ask them to stop. Again, If the management company existed it would be their responsibility to enforce this.
4. If nobody has paid any services charges for over 20 years, then there might not have been any repairs done on the building in quite some time.
Whilst waiting for the other side to come back, my solicitor suggested that I knock the neighbours door to see if I could find out any more information but the lady downstairs wasn’t in today. I’ve left a note with my phone number on asking her to give me a ring to have a quick chat. My solicitor is doing everything that she can but has been honest with me and said that the property might be unmortgageable unless the vendors solicitor can provide sufficient documentation, however I’m not confident that she’ll be able to if the company no longer exists… it will then be up to the lender to make the final decision. It is out of our control now.
Apologies for the very long winded post. My anxiety is through the roof at the minute and it’s awful being told this after 9 weeks of waiting around. Surely things like this happen all the time and there must be a way around it? 