Q: We would greatly appreciate it if you could advise us on a couple of matters. In the main, the water stopcocks for the flats in our block are located in secure cupboards in the communal area on each landing. This is where the water risers are situated but these cupboards can only be accessed …
Q: Please would you advise us in our response to the questions asked by the solicitor for a buyer of one of our the apartments on our estate. We are an enfranchised estate with all leaseholders having a 22nd share in the company (22 apartments in all) and all pay an equal share of the …
Q: Does the request to inspect the minute book, allow a member to see all the minutes from the inaugural meeting establishing the Association in early 2014, to the last set of signed minutes? Can we ask him to specify which set of minutes or range of dates he wishes to view? Can we inform him he can only …
Q: One of our apartments is in the process of being sold. The purchaser’s Solicitor has asked us to provide a Fire Risk Assessment and ask the sellers solicitor to advise us of a our legal obligation to obtain such a certificate. Some years ago we arranged with our local Fire Service for an Officer …
Q: Can you provide any guidance around Fire Risk Assessments? A buyer’s solicitor has recently written to us: “Fire Risk Assessment is a legal requirement for any property with common areas, rather than an insurer’s requirement.” Does this sound correct? Is there a particular format that this should be in? FPRA Chairman Bob Smytherman …
Q: Lease Variation Now that we have reached the 80 year threshold in the unexpired term of the leases, we are being asked by leaseholders (or their solicitors) about an extension to the term when carrying out a sale or re-mortgage. Our normal response to this is that because of the ‘Share of Freehold’, the …
Q: We are six leaseholders who recently became freeholders. Although our property will be professionally managed by a managing agent, since none of the Freeholders has the time to do this, we have had to put in place insurance ourselves for the first time for the building, but as none of us are insurance experts we do …
Q: We have read recently about sinking funds. We wonder whether our lease enables us to create one? We may need to save for a long-term project of replacing our block of garages, and wonder whether we could do this by having a sinking fund. If we had a sinking fund, if someone sold their …
Q: Are we required to serve a Section 20 notice for works that will be paid for out of our reserves fund? In other words, if we are not asking the shareholders for additional funds to pay for the works, do we need to serve the s20? Is the requirement based on the spending of …
Q: We are an estate of 24 properties. The landlord has his own management company and they in turn use a managing agent to handle the day-to-day maintenance of the estate. The service charges are paid to the management company via the managing agent. The estate has an on-site bio-digester sewage treatment plant that outputs …