Freeholder's work X2 has left our flat in worse state

[Ellsiedodah]

What would you do? In our leasehold agreement, our freeholder is responsible for various areas of our maisonette (even though the cost comes back to us, variously split by 1, 6 or over 100 other leaseholders in our conservation area estate) . Our freeholder finally came to refurbish our windows but didn't do it properly and consequently has damaged them to the extent several need replacement and the rest will hardly last a year. They also came to resurface our external staircase but did not resolve the issue and actually made them more dangerous. Regardless we have been summoned to pay £4.5k for the steps and our guess is the windows will be more. Through our questioning and unofficial challenging they have shaved off 1k of the steps but haven't even got a date in to redo the work and are not admitting any wrongdoing. We need to put our flat on the market in October so this is all disastrous. What would you do?! Huge thanks

Speak to your household insurance company about legal cover, and ask for the work to be made good.

Check out lease-advice.org. It’s a government backed body set up to help defend leaseholders’ interests. You can ring them for info and it’s free.

Thanks so much for the suggestion, a very interesting thought. The freeholder buys the buildings insurance, so I'm not sure how this will work, but will definitely look at this!

Brilliant to know about thanks so much

I have had help from them on several occasions. Good to get well informed advice without having to pay for it. Good luck!

Have a look specifically relating to Section 20 legislation. They can't just retrospectively demand huge sums for work that has been carried out; a specific consultation procedure to be followed. There have been a number of FTT cases on it, the upshot of which is that ignorance is not a defence.

Good luck.