QUESTION
I am a leaseholder, currently experiencing many and complex leasehold problems and problems with freeholder neighbours harassing me. My health is suffering badly and I feel I need advice. I am being harassed on a daily basis by freeholder neighbours all day every day, from very early in the morning until very late at night. If I play any music at all or have the radio on it gets worse or I get reported to the management committee and we are just going round and round and round in the same situation. It is turning into a domestic hell, I feel like a prisoner in my own flat.
My off-road vehicle is currently parked in my parking space. Can I be compelled to move it if it is untaxed and unlicensed even though it has a SORN declaration? I have permission to keep it there from the freeholder neighbours' management committee pending repair and removal to a garage, but soon they will again start asking what is being done about it. I want to avoid court, but it has been established that there is a specific clause in my lease, which says, no untaxed or unlicensed vehicles on the premises.
I was shouted at in a meeting of management company (formed of freeholder neighbours) and residents at an AGM in March this year, in a situation where I was the only leaseholder present at the meeting in a majority of freeholders, and I felt very threatened, isolated and intimidated. I asked the management committee to ensure my safety and security at future meetings but they refused saying they don't get involved in private disagreements. But it was still made very public at this meeting and I had no support from anyone at the meeting. The same people who shouted at me telling me to move my car, are the same people harassing me now. I feel like lodging a complaint about this as I now feel very wary and intimidated about attending furthet AGMs/residents' meetings. I also feel I am being discriminated against and being pushed around because I am a leaseholder amongst a majority if freeholders.
I can't help wondering if I would be treated better if I became a freeholder. I wonder if I could get some pointers about buying my share of the freehold. I have held the 99 year lease for 11 years. I realise it may be an expensive protracted process and I will have to see if it is worth it.
Any advice you can give me on steps I could take would be appreciated.
ANSWER
Dear Leaseholder
I am sorry to hear that you feel like you are a prisoner in your own home.
With regards to your off-road vehicle, I’ve not read your lease but you seem to accept that there is a clause in it that prevents you from keeping untaxed or unlicensed vehicles on the premises and on that basis, you cannot keep the car at the property.
With regards to the conduct of people at the AGM, I’m unclear as to what your status is in that forum if you are not a freeholder. If you are not a shareholder in the freeholder company and / or the management company, you cannot influence these meetings and you should either decide to attend as an observer to take notes without passing comment or not bother attending at all. That does not excuse the behaviour you have suffered and if you believe you are the victim of harassment, my advice to you is to call the police on 101 and report your neighbours’ behaviour.
Because you have 88 years left on your lease, you should be taking steps to extend it at the earliest opportunity because it is only going to get more expensive, the longer you leave it and once you have less than 80 years left on your lease, it will become subject to marriage value and the cost will go up significantly. Also, it will be hard to assign your lease with its current number of remaining years.
You have a right to extend your lease under Section 42 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 and you are welcome to contact me for further advice in this regard. One strategy might be to extend your lease by way of acquisition of a share in the freehold company but I cannot advise further without having sight of the paperwork.
Shmuli Simon, Director of Leasehold Law, Integrity Property Management
