Leasehold Covenants breached

[Scott55]

The situation is bad.

Our residential leasehold covenants have been broken by the freeholder for several years, including 'peaceful living', use of our driveway and garage has been blocked by debris (until recently), not providing requested buildings insurance policy, buildings and surrounding areas kept in good repair. Most of the covenants have been broken in one form or another and the council has been involved (planning departments - freeholder breached enforcement order, health and safety (rats from large amount of refuse), noise department - dog barking (Freeholder tenant in attached property breached enforcement order and court action is being carried out by the council).

Abuse, antisocial behavior - it has all happened, with numerous police visits. The freeholders no longer live in the attached house and have been alerted to the issues on numerous occasions.

The key question is:

Does anybody now what is the best course of action and the likely outcomes following a court case?

Any help is gratefully received.

[andydd]

Hi there.

It is of course possible to hit the freeholder where it hurts (in the pocket), by suing for damages, I have followed this route and was partially succesful, they made an ogffer to settle before the court hearing which I accepted and they did perform some of their repairing covenants although they havnt kept it up.

The trouble is it can be rather complicated and expensive, especially if above £5000.

Failure to provide insurance docs, prob sint a condition of the lease BUT it is unlawful although getting the authorities invol;ved in this criminal action is a bit of a grey area, there have been LVT decisions on this subject concludinmg that the leaseholder may be justified in arranging his own insurance and reclaiming the cost from the freeholder.

There are options to remove the managing agent (or the managing functions of the freeholder) by RTE, RTM or appointment of a manager (this requires fault by the current manager).

Accusations of failure to repair require you follow the Pre-Action protocol for housing repairs (http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...tocol/prot_hou) before starting any legal action, it may be the case that by starting this you force him to realise the seriousness of the situation also perhaps point out that should somone be injured as a result of his neglect he could be liable for millions in damages.

All the above will require proof but it sounds like you have some, copies of correspondnce, photos, videos, surveyors reports will help.

Andy