Lease holding advice required

[Rianoo]

Dear forum,

I am hoping for some advice in to payment of a bill that I have been sent in reagrds to works on our home undetaken by the lease holder company on this property that I bought a while back. The bill is very substantial and we have never been invoiced for works or have received any detail of works undertakenrks or even seen the works undertaken. We have received a debt collection order with a seven days notice. We do not have the money to pay it and do not require a black mark - any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

R

[DaveR]

Your liability depends on the terms of the lease, but there are also statutory requirements that make it more complicated. In very general terms, tenants usually have to be consulted before major works are undertaken that they will be liable to pay for. Depending on how long ago you bought the property, and when the works were supposedly done, there may be an issue about whether it's your liability, and also about information provided to you by the seller. This is one of those areas where you need proper specialist advice, unfortunately. There are a few local law firms who have been recommended on here for property related stuff, and I think one or two lawyers from those firms who post on here. Good luck.

Edited to add:

this link might be helpful http://www.lease-advice.org/

[Rianoo]

Thanks Dave - much appreciated.

[bobbsy]

Sorry to hijack, but I have a similar issue. Can anyone suggest names of the local firms?

[BM13]

We used Thackray Williams in Bromley for lease related however not the same problem, they were efficient and helpful.

Hope this helps.

[DaveR]

Local firms recommended on here have included Glazer Delmar, William Bailey and Hepburns, but I don't know whether any of them do much of this kind of work (it's really not the same as conveyancing, which is the bread and butter property work for most high street firms). A local-ish firm that I do know do this work is Anthony Gold, who have offices near E&C and in Streatham https://anthonygold.co.uk/.

These days you can also go direct to a barrister, and that can be quicker and cheaper - Tanfield Chambers are well known for this type of thing, and they offer direct access: http://www.tanfieldchambers.co.uk/

[Lowlander]

What DaveR said. We used http://bennettwelch.com for a recent lease extension, they have a lot of experience in this area http://bennettwelch.com

You should certainly have been notified in advance of the works taking place and a bill beforehand (sadly little chance to challenge it)...

[spider69]

This should have been picked up on the pre-assignment questionnaire.

If you have never received a S20 the max you would have to pay per property is ?250

If you bought with the previous owner aware then solicitor is liable as it should have been declared