A lady gets in touch from St Albans, where her 25-year-old builder son has just bought £117.000 leasehold flat, in a block of six.
He started work in breach of lease, removing the kitchen and bathroom, and a neighbour complained prompting the freeholder to intervene.
The initial demand was for £4,000. When the son went to speak to him he said £2,000 would be sufficient.
The son then offered £500, to which the reply was: “No chance, sonny.”
Gas central heating would involve some works over the common parts.
Here’s the mother’s email to LKP:
The flat needs extensive updating. He wants to replace the old kitchen and bathroom, put central heating in, put in a wooden floor (it is a ground floor flat) and remove a stud partition wall between the kitchen and living room to make it open plan. Everything will remain in the same place – ie: there is no change to layout of cooker, sink, toilet, bath and so on. He asked for consent to alter and the freeholder has said that’s fine but there will be an administration charge of £950, a premium payable for a Deed in the sum of £2,500, and the ground rent will be increased by a further £100 a year. The ground rent will then be doubled every 20 years. Added to this, to give consent for central heating there will be a further admin charge of £450. My son has also agreed to get a letter from a structural engineer saying all is fine (which he is happy to do) and realises he would need to pay an admin charge but these charges seem excessive. He is aged 25 and a first time buyer and these charges are just extortionate.
In a nutshell he is being charged around £4,000 to update the flat – which he can’t afford.
I am just wondering what we can do?
Related posts:
Challenge to £100 leasehold subletting demand reveals nothing at all is owed
Just how much can a freeholder charge in a leasehold flat sale?
Freeholder Sean Powell has major works demand slashed by £600,000
Woman has £165,000 flat forfeited over what began as £290 ground rent demand
£2,000 sublet demand to frail pensioner needing care from freeholder Silhill Investments Limited (plus £375 to Pennycuik Collins)
There are two ways of looking at this. Wideboy leaseholder starts trashing a property that doesn’t belong to him is one. The landlord charging someone for increasing the value of his property is another, but that’s leasehold and it’s perfectly legal. The leaseholder should contact the other owners about acquiring the freehold and giving the landlord the sack.
Erm no OMH, the only charge beyond related legal and professional fees that can be made is where works cause a reduction in value etc as set out under the LTA 1927.
Not quite. If the lease forbids alterations absolutely they may not be made and a court may require the tenant to reinstate the premises. Unless the lease says that consent shall not unreasonably be withheld the landlord has absolute discretion in the matter and may therefore extract a premium, the amount of which is not prescribed.