Own a flat? Think again.

[Dallas]

An old block I used to rent in had a jolly old time trying to get the accounts published from the management company based in Monaco.

They used Facebook to communicate, one of the chappies said that you need to show intent to pay through a payment of £1 prior to the due date to prevent this.

[AtW]

She signed contract with forfeiture in it if she does not pay on time.

Seems totally unreasonable that she isn't getting the balance of money from sale.

[redgiant]

If you get the backing of the majority of the leaseholders you could do what we did for my place in London and do a share of freehold. Essentially we setup a LTD. company that owns the freehold and then we issue a limited number of shares so that the leaseholders can become shareholders of that company. I've found it to work well but it depends on the strength of the board of directors but generally as they live in the building too they have a vested interested in keeping on top of things.

[AtW]

If you get the backing of the majority of the leaseholders you could do

That's called the Revolution komrade...

[expat]

If you get the backing of the majority of the leaseholders you could do what we did for my place in London and do a share of freehold. Essentially we setup a LTD. company that owns the freehold and then we issue a limited number of shares so that the leaseholders can become shareholders of that company. I've found it to work well but it depends on the strength of the board of directors but generally as they live in the building too they have a vested interested in keeping on top of things.

That's why Americans call a flat a "condo": they are all condominiums, part-owned by a management company that itself is wholly-owned by the individual owners. It is a system that seems to work.

[AtW]

That's why Americans call a flat a "condo": they are all condominiums, part-owned by a management company that itself is wholly-owned by the individual owners. It is a system that seems to work.

Also they got guns to defend their condo!

[OwlHoot]

There are a plethora of landlords and managing agents who wait in the wings to make a killing by the use of the repossession laws.

Yes but non-payment of ground rent and/or service charge is remediable, in that you can halt court proceedings up to the last moment by forking out what you owe or agreeing a payment plan.

Even if a long lease specified that non payment of all charges within the specified time was an irremediable breach of the lease, I'm sure a court would overturn that.

Reading between the lines, in the case cited by the OP, it sounds like the lessee was absent, and probably uncontactable, but in any event pretty indifferent to her ownership of the flat.

[AtW]

Me thinking she did not have a good solicitor...

[SueEllen]

Me thinking she did not have a good solicitor...

The current solicitor or the one that helped her buy the flat?

The current solicitor did the best they could in the situation.

The one who helped her buy the flat clearly didn't stress enough that she needed to pay her ground rent and service charges.

She didn't help herself either by putting in writing that all correspondence should be sent to the flat, when she didn't live there full time, then repeating this on the phone.

[AtW]

The current solicitor did the best they could in the situation.

It clearly was not good enough. I fear she does not have money to get to the Supreme Court - situation that somebody can force sell house for £100k and pocket all money when debt is only £1k is crazy, totally perverse even if her lease contract said exactly that.

Might Putin's lover Paddy from my ignore list when he posts one more interesting thing...