Access to the property

[Anna1985]

According to lease the FH has a right to visit leasehold property twice a year for review.

The leaseholder doesn't provide access ie when access was requested via email and hand delivered notice - there is no answer.

So, what are the options of enforcing?

Background: The property is in a bad state of repair and tenant. The tenant is happy to provide access but wary of repercussion from his BTL landlord.

Thank you

[eagle2]

A tenant would normally require a landlord to make good any repairs. That may be a better route if you are on good terms with the tenant,

It depends what sort of repairs are required and what evidence you possess. If there have been repeated requests which have been ignored, you can give notice that entry will be required at a specific time on a specific day. It may be appropriate to agree a convenient time with the tenant,

In the case of emergency, you are allowed to gain access and deal with the problem.

[Anna1985]

There are 3 parties, FH, LH (BTL Ll) and Tenant.

Tenant is happy to allow the inspection of the property by FH, but worried for repercussions from LH (BTL Ll) .

FH really wants to ensure property is in the good condition and there are no issues to attend. LH is not responding because the repairs wil be approx 10+k.

[eagle2]

I was suggesting that the FH may be able to use the tenant to apply pressure indirectly on the LH.

Presumably, the FH would issue a schedule of works once it has inspected the property. Is the FH able and willing to see it through and spend £10+ k on the repairs?

Is there an ulterior motive here? Is the FH trying to force the LH to sell?

[Anna1985]

I was suggesting that the FH may be able to use the tenant to apply pressure indirectly on the LH.

Is there an ulterior motive here? Is the FH trying to force the LH to sell?

Absolutely, although FH would prefer to forfeit the lease, since it is an obligation on LH to provide access to FH to carry out property inspections.

[eagle2]

The FH is extremely unlikely to obtain forfeiture.

There is probably a "quiet enjoyment" clause within the lease and it would be implied anyway. Gaining access twice a year is unusual as it is, that should not be necessary.

In practice, it is unusual for a FH to require access until shortly before the end of the lease or unless there is a specific problem or investigations into proposed works are being carried out.

I doubt that the FH would receive much sympathy if it is insisting on 2 inspections a year.

Subject to the history between the parties involved, the FH appears to be aware of substantial repairs required and it is entitled to gain access in order to draw up a schedule of repairs.

[Anna1985]

Thank you, and the issue is here access not granted by LH in breach of the lease.

How could it be enforced in the cheapest way possible for the freeholder?

[eagle2]

The cheapest way is for the FH to say that access is required on a certain day at a certain time and it tries to agree a convenient time with the tenant as suggested in #2.

If that is unsuccessful, a court order would be required.

[Anna1985]

Thank you that was done. So just a court order?

[Trevor62]

May I ask, if then you were to get a court order would you be able to claim legal fees from the leaseholder?

[Anna1985]

May I ask, if then you were to get a court order would you be able to claim legal fees from the leaseholder?

Yes, it is interesting question. I think it depends on the lease.

[Macromia]

According to lease the FH has a right to visit leasehold property twice a year for review.

...

Background: The property is in a bad state of repair and tenant. The tenant is happy to provide access but wary of repercussion from his BTL landlord.

How long is the lease, in particular who long is the unexpired term?

What do you mean when you say that the property is "in a bad state of repair"?
How do you know, and what makes you think that it will cost £10,000+ to bring the property up to a reasonable standard?

In what way is the state of repair of this property affecting other leaseholders?



As eagle2 said in post #6, it would be unusual for a freeholder to insist on access without having good reason. If you are aware that work urgently needs doing because it can be seen from the outside (e.g. rotting window frames if the lease makes these the leaseholder's responsibility), you can inform the leaseholder that this work needs to be done without first gaining access.
If you simply suspect that the internal decoration needs attention, and that there might have been some sort of alteration made without permission, you probably don't have good grounds to insist on entry.

May I ask, if then you were to get a court order would you be able to claim legal fees from the leaseholder?

That is likely to depend on (a) whether the lease includes any clauses that allow legal costs to be recovered and, (b) what the answers to questions such as the ones I have posted above are.
The court that was asked to grant an order for the leaseholder to allow entry could be asked to award costs, but whether or not they would do so would depend on whether the court considered there to be a real need for an inspection. The fact that the lease contains a clause requiring the leaseholder to allow twice yearly inspections doesn't mean that courts will consider this to be reasonable or necessary.

[Anna1985]

Hi All,

Thank you for your views.

I have thought about it and think the way to approach it would be:

1) issue notice to repair/replace the windows
2) if nothing done then either apply to the court for for forfeiture on the grounds of disrepair

3) or another option - would be to replace the windows and charge leaseholder for the works then give new notice for the rest of the works (as access will be gained while doing windows)

Question what would be most cost effective way as LH won't pay the service charges without the court action

[Trevor62]

Sometime ago the downstairs LH/FH installed a combi system and stopped using the tank in the roof, the maisonettes originally shared the tank but when I bought my upstairs maisonette the combi was already installed. Anyway the downstairs connected straight to the mains,since then my water pressure seems to have been reduced, I did get the water company around to check the pressure and they told me that the pressure was within the requirements.

The issue I have now is not being able to see what they have done with the pipe work, maybe they have installed a cut off tape on my mains pipe to slow the flow!

Before their system was installed, when i use to flush the toilet the refill would be fast and the flusher would finish with a bit of a thud noise, they use to tell me they could hear it.

Anyway I dont get that thud noise anymore, as there a now tenants living downstairs Im not sure how to go about checking my pipe to see if there has been any alteration done.