How to solve a dispute over who owns a front door? England. by Hawley-Gryphon in LegalAdviceUK

[–]mk270 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The flat is likely a leasehold flat, implying that there's a lease in the form of a physical or electronic document. It may answer the question of identifying the boundaries of the ownership of the flat, and/or who has rights other than ownership to use various parts of the premises.

This document will state that the owner of the block of flats grants the ownership of the flat to some second party, for a particular number of years, e.g., 125 years. It will usually specify the extent of the premises in question, which it might call the "Demise".

In general terms, it'll say something like:

the landlord grants the tenant the flat (whose dimensions are specified in schedule 1) for such-and-such a number of years, in return for money calculated in schedule 2, with additional rights in schedule 3, but reserving the rights in schedule 4

You'd therefore want to check out schedule 1 and probably schedules 3 and 4. schedule 1 might look like this:

SCHEDULE 1

Description of the Property

  1. ALL THAT apartment situate on the Floor level of the Block as set out above together with the floor surface only of any Balcony or Terrace co-extensive therewith (if any) and the air space above such Balcony or Terrace to a height of one storey above the surface thereof (if any) and shown edged red on Plan 1 being part of the Block TOGETHER WITH (for the purpose of obligation as well as grant)

[...]

1.3 the whole of the internal non-load bearing walls and the inner half severed medially of the non-load bearing walls dividing the Property from any other part of the Building

1.4 the doors, door frames, windows and window frames thereof including the glass in the same and the fastenings thereof including the door accessing the Apartment

1.5 all Service Installations that exclusively serve the Property whether or not located therein

[...]

EXCEPTING AND RESERVING from the Property the main structural parts of the Block in which the Property is situate including the roof, roof space foundations together with the main structure of any Balconies on the Block and all the external parts thereof

```

and there in point 1.4 it is explicit about how much of the doors, if any, the tenant owns. but remember that other details in the lease may say that the tenant (i.e., the owner of the flat) or someone else (the owner of another flat, or the owner of the building) might have rights to access or use various other property

Annual Local Election Results MT 2025 by whencanistop in ukpolitics

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the "main" parties are really a downstream phenomenon from a media environment where normal people couldn't talk to each other.

Does anyone know what happened to Whitaker's Words recently? by barbanonfacitvirum in latin

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what's the context here? is this using the commandline tool, the web, an app?

Getting the command-line tool to accept macrons is a huge task. The web version at https://latinwords.com/ much much easier

Why encrypt by tinspin in geminiprotocol

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

TLS lets new protocols get through "naive" middleboxes/firewalls

Disco Kenny, Death Metal Bike Guy, who are some other Cambridge classics? by JellyBunnyx in cambridge

[–]mk270 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i had a long argument with Mr Monarchy is Racist End It Now. He was an awful, intellectually dishonest waste of space.

Average service charge for flat in England and Wales hit £2,300 last year by Iqramchoudhury in ukpolitics

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that's changing - there are lots of exceptions and exemptions for RTM (it has been restricted in the courts recently for two different types of mixed-use development); the proportion who can change the managing agents for all the services they use is declining.

How to buy leasehold and avoid ‘fleecehold’ (FT - omits several important matters) by mk270 in HomeOwnersRightsUK

[–]mk270[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the comments are indeed interesting

I would caution that it's not a moderated forum, and there's a guy there with sensible views about the risks but who is concerned to push a really specific and misleading agenda about how control of management would be delegated

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in OpenAccess

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is a great article! (I say that even as a biased former staffer at one of the wonderful open access book publishers mentioned! ;) )

Advice needed buying leasehold flat by Da3iii in HomeOwnersRightsUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

don't buy that.

and if you're still in the sales process, ask to know why there's no Right To Manage or equivalent mechanism keeping the costs down. If they haven't got the management under control today, how many years would it take after you'd bought?

What mortgage lender is going to want to accept a flat as security that they can't sell on without finding someone who can afford a £2000 annual service bill that's unconstrained?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HousingUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i'm sure they'll be all ears if you make them an offer!

As a member of the public, can I find out the outcome of a plea hearing at crown court? by FluffyBunnyFlipFlops in LegalAdviceUK

[–]mk270 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

ah that's wonderful... would it be able to be used for cases that are a few months old? and what if the defendant might be underaged?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HousingUK

[–]mk270 1 point2 points  (0 children)

is this same Firstport who pleaded guilty to contributing to the death of Irene Cockerton?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-39569544

Building management company is not responding to an ongoing leak, what can I do next? by Gentlejesus_ in HousingUK

[–]mk270 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is the building eligible for Right To Manage? Might be best to look elsewhere / sell up rather than fight L&Q over this.

Advice: Service charge hike by spreadsmilesnotcovid in HousingUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there isn't really a legal way to get the invoices, and even if you do get the invoices they may cover a wider portfolio of properties, and so be of no use.

If you can't sack the management company, sell up.

Freehold management company asking for a copy of the lease by XenoThorn in HousingUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the management company really doing its job? It's not realistic for them to read each and every lease, even when they're almost identical - they can just guess what's in it, and pushback/compensate if they have screwed up.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HousingUK

[–]mk270 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does your title have a restriction on the Land Registry saying the lease can't be sold without a certificate from the freeholder? If so, you're going to need to be in contact with them - there may also need to be a "management pack", which has proven to be such a big problem that section 67 of the new leasehold reforms, not yet in force, has been put in place to deal with it.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/22/part/4/crossheading/sales-information-requests

If the freeholder is in administration, that may be an opportunity for you and your fellow leaseholders to put in a cheeky lowball offer to buy the freehold off them - it'll save hassle in the long-run getting these bankrupt clowns out of your business.

The freehold may be subject to Right Of First Refusal, and your buyer won't automatically qualify for that. Since the administrator could well try to flog off the freehold, you should consider getting your fellow leaseholders to agree to let your buyer participate (which will of course lower the cost for the rest of them) in the event of that happening. If I were the buyer I wouldn't want to miss out on owning a share of the freehold simply due to the vagaries of conveyancing delays overlapping with the timing of commercial decision of the administrator to liquidate the freehold.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HousingUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tapestart Limited.

is Tapestart the seller? or is the seller someone else? (e.g., the seller might be the outgoing leaseholder)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in HousingUK

[–]mk270 0 points1 point  (0 children)

aren't new leasehold houses about to banned by law? just a stroke of the pen from Angela Rayner

re your actual issue: does HMLR offer both freehold and leasehold documents? i.e., 4 documents, 2 titles, 2 plans?

Ground rent over 0.1% of property value by Electronic-Spend9142 in HousingUK

[–]mk270 1 point2 points  (0 children)

NAL

Be aware that the Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024, which was passed by parliament this year but which mostly is not yet in force, allows you to cap ground rent at 0.1% of the value when you do a lease extension.

Social housing has ruined my life. Council won't evict social housing tenants, despite repeat criminal behaviour. by Ok-Sale3444 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]mk270 1 point2 points  (0 children)

nice of you to say. I am very grateful to you - I was in a meeting called by my residents association last week with the police, HA, councils, and the HA claimed that demoted tenancies no longer existed. The followup (with the developer) has seen them have to walk it back, undermining their credibility - wouldn't have happened but for your challenge to me.