Southwark Council Leaseholders who live in a street property

[werdna101]

If you're a leaseholder and Southwark Council is your freeholder and you live in a street property (i.e. anything not on an estate), please read on...

I sit on a body called the Home Ownership Council. This is an elected body which represents the views of leaseholders to Southwark Council. We are responsible for scrutinising policy and the council's general performance in regards to home ownership and make sure that the council takes the views of leaseholders into account in everything it does.

Traditionally, the council has been very focused on leaseholders who live on estates as there are formal structures which more easily represent the views of these leaseholders to the council. However, almost half of the leasehold properties in Southwark are street properties (usually houses or flats in houses) and we feel that the views of street property leaseholders aren't being properly represented.

We want to find out what problems street property leaseholders are having so we can convince the council that special provision needs to be made for leaseholders who live in street properties.

So, please post below what problems you've been having with Southwark council. This can be in relation to service charges, repairs, major works, answering your questions etc, etc.

We're not case workers and can't help with individual problems, but hopefully if we get enough evidence we'll get the council to change so that there aren't problems in the future.

Thanks,

Andrew Robinson

[Ridgley]

Quite a few of my Neighbours, are complaining, that Southwark Council takes longer to do repairs when it comes to street properties they tend to prioritise estates. A lot of street properties are old Victorian houses so there are a lot of repairs that need to be done and it seems the council tend to let the properties go to such a state before they do something about it.

It is great that you have brought this up as I am sure it happening to a lot of tenants in the area is there not a

E U policy on housing regarding this topic?

[James Barber]

Hi Andrew,

Please do let me know of any East Dulwich casework that I can help with.

Problably worth making it crystal clear that councillors hold the council to account. Opposition councillors hold the administrations councillors to account and scrutinise them and Home Ownership Council is a consultative body that also helps hold everyone to account on its defined areas of council housing.

[WrightC]

I am a leaseholder and have experienced a lot of problems with Southwark council with repairs.

I pay ?400-?500 per year for my service charge and cannot see a return, when I want certain repairs done.

e.g. last year I called Southwark Council to find out when the outside of my property would be painted, as my neighbour who is a council tenant has had her property painted three times since mine was done in 1997. I was told allocation to paint my property will be in 2013, I then asked if I can be reimbursed if I do it myself and was told NO. I did paint it myself at my cost.

Another issue which really p..... me off was in September I was burgled, Southwark Council turned up at my property at 11.30pm to secure my window, my window was clearly damaged and had no window locks as the burglars broke them. The guy who came round to secure the window stated that I will get a job ref within three days for the window to be repaired. I chased the repairs department after hearing nothing after three days, I chased for 10 days each time being told by the robots on customer service that they do not have my job number yet, I then requested to speak to the repairs manager, or asked for him to call me back, and was totally ignored. I then put in a complaint with Southwark, and told the complaints department that I will be fixing my window myself and want compensation once it's fixed. I was then told by the complaint department that if I fix the window I will not receive a refund, I must wait until the repairs department attempt to fix the window, which will take up to 20 working days, I was told this on the 15th of October nearly one month after the burglary, I was appalled by the service I received considering I pay for this service, Southwark Council was not interested that I live on the ground floor with a damaged window with no locks.

I have since fixed my window myself and the cost (?100) has been deducted of next quarters Service Charge, however I had to kick off big time to get the deduction.

If I was a freeholder my window would have been fixed within days. Southwark Council are a joke!!

And I hope something can be done about this, as I know I cant be the only tenant who have problems with them.

[SeanHitz]

Hello,

i'm just about to buy a property that is leasehold and the council is the freeholder. I'm not exactly sure of my rights, and what exactly I can expect the council to do for the property. One of the things that came back on the survey is that some repairs need to be made to the roof, can I expect the council to do this for me, and how do I go about making it happen? Can anyone offer some advice??

[James Barber]

Hi SeanHitz,

The council would be required to repair the roof. The councils repair people might disagree with your surveyor.

When I bought a freehold house the surveoyr said it needed the rood replaced urgently. We've just done it 8 years later and had no problems. Surveyors tend to be very cautious as no come back for that but if they miss something they can be sued.

Equally the council can be painfully slow BUT when I leased a flat from a private freeholder that private freeholder was painfully slow. Usually I paid for the works to avoid the hassle.

Hope this helps you.

[cate]

Sean, Is it a flat in a house? I would get your solicitor to get quotes from the council as to the cost of the work. Then either ask the seller to set money aside to pay for/agree to pay for it or knock the price off the flat.

Also ask for copies of all works/costings that have been done as far back as you can. How long has the seller owned the flat?

The council will expect leaseholders to pay a proportion of any repairs. If you a just a tenant then you don't have to pay.

Sadly the quotes that the council use don't always reflect the final price. And if you live in something with a high propertion of renters instead of leaseholders your bills will be usually higher as in a block of flats.

[SeanHitz]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I will be living in a flat in a house. There are only 2 flats in the building. I'll be interested to find out what the people below say, as I feel it needs a paint as well. Can't see that happening for a while though in the current climate!

[PeckhamRose]

May I recommend that ALL leaseholders of Southwark no matter estate or street property please become members of your Leaseholder Organisation. It is called LEASEHOLDERS ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHWARK 2000 (LAS 2000), PO Box 23394, London, SE16 2WA. They are run by Leaseholders for Leaseholders and do a LOT of in depth work for us all. They are about ?12 a year to join but you get a lot from it. Thank you. Didn't mean to highjack the thread but it is important!