UK Landlord Forum / Life

We have a flat that is leasehold.  An issue has come up via our managing agent about the interpretation of the lease.  Basically, our agent thinks that the garage roofs are not covered by the communal fund and owners should now pay for repairs/renewal.  The flats are almost 50 years old and roofs have always been paid for via maintenance funds.  There are other issues (that we aren't discussing) which are also not mentioned specifically in the lease but they are paid for from communal funds and with agreement from owners.  Our agent wants us to pay for a specialist lease solicitor to give an opinion on this subject.  Personally, I'm reluctant to pay £500 for this as there could be other queries in the future.
We pay block insurance for buildings and garages.  It would be nearly impossible if you had to force an owner to fix their roof. The agent accepts that garage door painting, pointing and guttering is covered by maintenance.  Can anyone please advise on this?

The only way anyone can give you an authoritative answer about whether the roofs should be covered by communal funds would be by reading the lease.  But if your garage roofs aren't covered, and your managing agent didn't know that, then you should consider getting together with the other residents in your block and having a discussion about whether to dismiss your managing agent and replace them with someone competent.  (Most "professional" managing agents are a total waste of oxygen, so this may be a challenge.)

You might want to consider revising the lease at the same time, because it sounds as if it's not up to modern standards.  Fixing the defects in the lease will make it easier to sell when the time comes.

So overall, yes, I think you will end up paying at least £500 to a solicitor, but don't pay them to advise the managing agent on how to do their job -- pay them to advise you about how best to get rid of the agent.

Hi Mortimer
Thanks for your reply.  I see where you are coming from.....My worry is exactly that - paying for more advice.  There seem to be endless companies offering surveys and reports that seem to contradict each other and aren't always clear (one was 50 pages long zzzz), another warranty 96 pages.  Madness.