Help to understand my lease. Dispute with freeholder over roof repair and leaks.

[NoMoreLimbo]

Hi there. Would really appreciate if someone could help me unravel this.
I own a leasehold property ie. I own a flat and Under me is a commercial business. Only these two in the freehold.

I pay the freeholder a share of the building insurance annually. There is no service charge.

The roof is in a terrible state and the recent storm saw several tiles come off and shatter in my garden. I now also have water leaks into two rooms (post storm).

My lease is written in a very unclear way. What with a big bill coming up to sort out the roof (which I really no idea how to pay being a single parent) I am trying to understand what my proportion if any would be.

There is one section headed:
‘The Lessees hereby jointly and severally covenant with the lessor as follows’ and then bits about the windows, ceilings and floors. So far so good. Also it very clearly states that I need to contribute 75% of cost to repaint exterior woodwork and ironwork.

Then follows another ‘heading’ stating ‘The Lessor hereby covenants with the Lessees as follows’ ….
A point stating: to insure the property
Another point (this is the important bit : ‘ To repair and keep in repair the retained parts the main structure of said building and the roof and all external parts (excluding the windows) thereof.

So what I’m trying to understand is do I actually have to pay for the roof repairs???

If you have insurance and you have storm damage would roof repairs not be covered under the insurance policy?

@dementedpixie well yes, but, the freeholder says the insurance may not cover it whether all or at all, as the roof is very old and in poor repair.
So I’m trying to work out if I am liable to pay. There is nothing in my lease that I can see says so.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/leasehold_flats_and_houses_responsibilities_for_repairs suggests freeholder is responsible

@dementedpixie Thanks for the link! I will have a read now

..suggest freeholder is responsible
Ultimately the onus is on the f/h to keep the building in good repair.
However the costs will ne passed on to the leaseholders.
Suggest you join the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group where you will get good advice!

@20questions thanks for the tip of the Facebook group. I will get onto that. My property lease does not state anything about costs being passed on to the leaseholder. Not do I pay an annual service charge

Would you expect the work that you benefit from to be done for free?
It would take reading your whole lease to be certain.
If it’s a small building the freeholder would expect to charge the service charge on an as and when needed basis.