Freeholder - requirements

[maggiethecat]

Three flat owners own the freehold and we don't use managing agent - do accounts, pay insurance, maintenance jobs ourselves.

However, esp considering that 2 of the 3 flats are tenanted wanted to find out if there were minimum safety or other requirements (we do the usual gas safety but that's about it).....

There are plenty of sites on the web that will give you advice just google buy to let . Are they mortgaged? if so you will need to tell the lender and your insurance company.
Have smoke alarms fitted with the one in the top flat linked to the ground floor.It sounds daft but if there were a fire upstairs it could save your life
and the building. Firebrigade ones not sufficient we found.
Have fireblankets in the let flats
All tenants should sign a form to say they have no unspent Criminal Convictions. Even if they lie you will still have satisfied the legal requirements.
Electric cookers safer than gas ones.
Tenants' deposits need to be held in a separate account. Not sure of te details

Thanks Jasper. What is the legal requirement re: tenant's crim convictions?

It is just an insurance company tick the box thing. If you have not asked
the prospective tenants this question then if something happens eg they set fire to the place (accidentally or deliberately) then the insurers could reject your claim. By asking you are covering your backside. When you make the claim (god forbid it would ever happen) you show the completed form proving that you asked the question.That legally is all you have to do.
You could even send the completed form to the insurers when the tenants move it.It is bizarre but that is how the system works . I think the goverment should allow crbs on tenants but currently there are none so we have to do this.
Remember it is a condition of your insurance that you do not have any convictions and if you have lied they could refuse a claim but with tenants there is no way of easily finding out so just ask them to sign the form.
There have been numerous cases in the news recently of people being caught on this one woman lost everything when her house went on fire but there was no completed form for her tenants

See Landlord Blog website for case study re above

Jasper, you're talking about rental property, not leasehold. It's not the responsibility of the freeholder to ensure that demised areas are up to current standards in terms of short term lets, that's the leaseholder's responsibility.

In terms of freeholders' obligations, I'd suggest (as a minimum) having a fire risk assessment carried out, along with a H&S report. They only need updating if there is a material change to the property, but will give you an idea of how best to protect yourselves from fire and things like that - conversions particularly are notorious for having inadequate fire partitioning.

Also, a building reinstatement valuation should be carried out to make sure you're insuring the block appropriately - the automatic uplift on the insurance can become very inaccurate over time. Best case scenario is that you're over valued and you've been paying a bit too much for your insurance - worst case is that you're underinsured and in the event of a catstrophic loss the insurance company will only pay out the claim to the proportion of which it's under value (I.e if the reinstatement value was £1m, and the propert was only insured to £750k, the insurance could only pay out 75% of any claims you make).

Also, get yourself up to date on Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It's the one where self managed properties tend to fall down, and ignorance is not a defence according to the FTT. And bear in mind that just because you're all friends now, doesn't mean that someone isn't going to buy in the future and be difficult about it.

Thanks LBOCS2, remember you from other thread.
So is the fire risk and H&S to be carried out on all (3) flats or just communal areas?
Do you have any suggestions about where to find company that does the fire risk assessment and H&S? Do you know if electrics test of the communal area is required?

For many years we have self managed and not sure that things are done properly - we just thought we'd get on and do the obvious things ourselves

Just the communal areas, the responsibility for the demised areas stays with the leaseholder.

5 year electrical tests are a good idea, yes - and PAT testing on any movable electrical items (lamps in hallways, for example).

Cardinus and companion both carry out H&S, FRA and insurance revaluation. I'm fairly sure Cardinus are national - they do work for some of the big freeholders (Dorchester and Aviva), not sure about how far afield Companion go. Get a couple of quotes as they do vary wildly!

Oh, and if you've not had it done and the building was from before 2001, an asbestos test is probably worthwhile - not necessarily because it'll cause an issue to you but if you ever have workmen on site then you need to let them know if there's any there so they can take appropriate precautions.

Very helpful - will look at all of this!