UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi I wonder if anyone could help.

I own a flat on the top floor of a property containing 9 flats. 3 floors, 3 flats on each floor. I currently am renting out this flat.

I received a proposal for someone to build 2 more apartments on a 4th floor. The owners of each flat are also the owners of the freehold of the property, and have our own residents association.

The proposers are offering as follows:

£2000 for each flat owner
Adding a door entry system( currently have just doorbells)
The render and painting under windows will be repaired.

My own view would be that this would not be enough. Being an owner of a top floor flat I would argue that the disruption to my tenant would be far greater to those on the first 2 floors. And I would imagine that there would be quite an upheaval for my tenant during the proposed 6 month building works. I would argue that the top floor owners should be entitled to more money than the bottom 6 flats. But in a straight 1 flat 1 vote this might be difficult to overcome.

I also have the problem that my tenant may be leaving about half way through the building works. I would imagine it being quite difficult to find a tenant if such extreme building work is going on right above their heads! If I can't find a tenant for 3 months then a large percentage of the proposed £2k compensation is going to be lost anyway. I would be more inclined to vote yes if the money offered was say for example £5k

Next I would argue that instead of each flat splitting the maintenance costs of the property equally 11 ways, that the cost should be split into 25% for each floor leaving the original owners paying a third of the 25. % each whilst top floor owners would have to pay half of 25% each.

I've also read that the owners of the top floor flats should be responsible for the maintenance of the roof.

I'm pretty inexperienced with matters such as these and am basically seeking any advice I can find.
Are my list of demands reasonable?
Are there any other things that should be required for my permission to be granted?
What would happen if I say no and the other 8 owners say yes, would a majority win the vote or would they need everyone to vote yes?
Will it affect the value of my property going from the top floor of 3 stories, as opposed to the 3rd floor of 4?

I understand that the developers also need to be making money otherwise it's not worth their while. But I definately think an offer £2k is way short of what I should be expecting as an owner of a top floor property.

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated and many thanks in advance.

Regards

Rob

Hi Rob.

Its a commercial decision you have to make. The rules on voting in your Freeholders meeting will be in the constitution.

All your arguments seem reasonable and logical.

As a basic rule of Thumb they should be paying around 20% of the final sale value of the new property to get a "plot" with planning.

So 4 flats at £100k = £400k x 20% = £80k / 9 = 8k ish.

Even if you take the remedial works they would be doing off it's still all of £7k.

The Flats might be worth allot more or less than the £100k.

Thats what I think.

Thanks Boboff, i was pretty sure that 2K is a low ball offer, that is their first offer though.

I would also check you house Insurance and Mortgage, as some lenders  / underwriters have some very daft rules about only dealing with say three stories..