Hi,
I am a landlord/owner and been in dispute with the freeholder since acquiring the property in 2008. The building I own are is within a complex of several others in a London Borough. The freeholder converted a commercial unit to residential without informing the other ‘tenants’ or owners, including me, this was several years ago. The freeholder appointed various management companies to recover the ground rent debt, but was unsuccessful due to the fact that upon completion, the freeholder turned a blind-eye to lots of snagging and to make matters worse when the freeholder converted the commercial unit to residential, it messed up the naming/numbering for a few owners, including me, so we had to fork out money via a conveyencer/solicitor to get this resolved including headaches with tenants (BTL) who ended up paying for their neighbour’s gas/elec/water as the numbering had shunted by +1, i.e. no7 became no8, no8 became no9 etc… Due to law, the freeholder can only go back to 6 years of ground rent, but he’s decided to lump on the management company fees which isn’t politically correct because we filed for Right To Manage literally within several months of taking possession back in 2008. I want some legal advice now about where I stand because I’ve got 6 years of ground rent to pay and the freeholder has added c.£3k for management/service charge which is unfair considering the headache I’ve been through and not to mention other owners in the development. Thank you.
right… so what does your solicitor say?
The whole point was to find knowledgeable people within this forum to avoid consulting a solicitor.
ah right. I was confused by the adjective “legal”.
Well unfortunately, the advice you’ll get here (if anyone can advise) is probably not going to scratch the surface of what sounds like a seriously complicated situation. You mentioned the fact that you’ve already employed a solicitor and that “due to law” there seems to be a case to answer. Why not return to that solicitor and update them on the situation. They’d be best placed to help you I’d imagine.
I think you’ve misunderstood. I used a solicitor to sort out the naming and numbering issue in Land Registry due to the change outside of my control, solicitors haven’t been party to this situation. If you think this is for another forum, please advise. thanks.
I agree with tatemono - I think this issue might be too complex for someone on this forum to give you any useful advice on where you stand legally. You could talk to your previous conveyancing solicitor you used to resolve the numbering issue (since they’ll presumably be familiar with the management / freeholder situation already) to discuss your options? I have also found that some solicitors offer a free initial call with them and they will give you some high-level advice, so you could try this maybe?
Makes sense, thank you.
yup… told you it was complicated.