legal Legal Corner By Owen Hill, Consultant Solicitor at Wollen Michelmore The right to self manage your apartment building
– power to the people Every once in a while I meet someone who owns an apartment in a building and is unhappy about either the performance of the managing agents or the level of the service charges – sometimes both. All buildings that have been sub-divided rely
upon service charge arrangements to apportion the costs of communal areas. So a low level building with no gardens or car parking will need not much more than occasional attention whereas a high rise tower will have lifts, arrangements for external window cleaning as well as maybe lawns and plants to tend and parking areas. Some city centre schemes also have 24/7 concierge services - just like in the movies. The costs vary enormously from one scheme
to the next but the universal truth in all these arrangements is that no one is ever entirely satisfied. My dear grandmother (God bless her)
moved into a sheltered retirement scheme and was outraged when she delivered her shopping list to the front desk and was told that she would have to make her own way to Sainsbury’s... However, buried in 180 pages of the obscurely named ‘Common hold and Leasehold Reform Act’ of 2002 is a statutory procedure that enables occupiers to take control of the management of their building so long as more than 50 % of them vote in favour of the proposal. It does not deny the landlord the right to receive ground rents payable under the leases but it does mean that the tenants can determine the quality and cost of services to the building. The legislation will not make it cheaper to clean
the windows or easier to mow the lawn but it does give the consumer that pays for the service the right to participate in the process and benefit from either reduced costs or improved services – maybe even both!
The South Devon Law Firm
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Torquay • Newton Abbot • Paignton • Dartmouth
www.wollenmichelmore.co.uk Tel: 01803 521692
Paignton Office: Belgrave House, 2 Winner Street, Paignton, Devon TQ3 3BJ 55
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