Q about repair responsibility in a leasehold flat with management Co.

[FlatOuf]

Hello

Hope you can help. My elderly mother is selling her house and downsizing to a flat. The building has about 15 flats, restrictive covenants (no subletting permitted so all properties are leaseholder occupied) and there is a management company and fairly substantial service charge /ground rent.

The flat she is buying (owner is deceased so we are dealing with executor) has a flat roof over the living room which is a roof terrace for the penthouse above. There are a couple of circular water stains on the ceiling which look like they're from plant pots. The surveyor didn't say there was any damp but that he thought they were possibly caused by damage to the roof membrane through tiling or similar.

The surveyor also said he thought the investigation, repair and repaint should be covered by the freeholder/management company.

The estate agent has come back to me and said that everything within the flat is the leasholder's responsibility, not the management company's. So does that mean if my mum wants the water ingress investigated, repaired and the ceiling repainted, she needs to contact the leaseholder of the penthouse? How do we find out who that is? Via the solicitor? And should the vendor do all this?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions but my mum is very anxious about the marks so would not be happy to exchange until this is resolved.

She does have a solicitor but am conscious of not racking up bills if I don't need to.

When I had a leak in my flat from the upstairs flat, the shared building insurance paid for the repair and redecoration but we had share of freehold so maybe that's different. And I was living in the property at the time - possibly it's a bit of an issue that it's a probate property.

Thanks for any advice

Everything within the flat is the leaseholder’s responsibility.
But this is a leak in the roof ( most likely) so is the management companies responsibility to fix.
Doesn’t bode well for the future. Can you pause the purchase while the stains are investigated and the issue resolved? Better now than later.

Roof issues = management company

Thank you - that's what I thought. But if the flat roof is part of another leaseholder's property, is it on them to fix it?

I really hope this isn't going to be a nightmare. My mum's buyers are super keen to complete in time for the new term and if she can't move into the flat, she may have to have to live with me

I'm sorry but this sounds like a nightmare to sort out. We had a similar thing once with damp on the bathroom ceiling from the neighbour above. He was uncooperative at solving the issue and the management company were no help. I personally wouldn't ever buy a property with obvious damp coming from the flat above.

I would be looking at other flats for my mum, hard as that is.

Balconies and patios are not usually demised with the property, they are part of the structure of the building, which would be a management company responsibility.

Your mum needs to make her solicitor aware of this potential issue, so that appropriate enquiries can be made of the leaseholder (executor) and the management company, in order that satisfactory responses/remedial works are completed before you exchange contracts. The executor is unlikely to know much about it.

Once you exchange contracts, there will be no incentive for the leaseholder (executor) to resolve the issue at all, and the management company will have no incentive to prioritise this over any other maintenance works.

Your mum must make this leak a problem for the seller/management company, not herself as the buyer.

Under usual leasehold law, the structure of the building is the ManCo/FH responsibility, the demised items are the leaseholder's responsibility.

HOWEVER... balconies can be a tricky one. Sometimes they're demised, sometimes they're right of access. Sometimes the responsibility for the top layer of cover is the leaseholder's (the upstairs leaseholder), and sometimes it's the ManCo's. In almost all cases, leaks from them are a) a massive pain in the arse to find, and b) quite a long winded remediation.

If it's not causing a lot of damage and your mum is prepared to live with it for a while then go ahead, otherwise I'd seriously consider walking away - almost every single difficult leak I've dealt with in my nearly-20yr career have been from terraces and balconies.

Also, estate agents often know surprisingly little about leasehold law, so I wouldn't rely on them for guidance. The leasehold advisory service are a good, free resource. Otherwise speak to the managing agent themselves if you can and ask the question.