Anyone qualified legally for UK leashold law?

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Dorsai

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If you are, and are willing to offer free advise on a problem I have, on the basis that I won't hold you accountable to what you say, let me know.

I have a simple question needing what I suspect is a simple reply.

I can PM the question, or post openly later on.
 
Would you care to openly post. I may not know the answer but I can speak to a man who does :yay:
 
Would you care to openly post. I may not know the answer but I can speak to a man who does :yay:

Ok, here goes.

I live in a flat, one in a block of 4.
This flat is mine, bought with a mortgage.
As it's a flat in a block of 4, it is a leasehold, rather than a freehold.

There is a man who lives in the flat above mine.
His flat is his, like mine is mine.
As it is the same building, his flat is like mine, a leasehold.

It stated in the leasehold contract:

"No person shall reside in the flat unless the floor thereof is covered with carpet rugs or other suitable materials with sound damping qualities except that the same may be removed for cleaning repairing or decorating or for some similar temporary purpose" (word for word from my copy).

The man above has laminate flooring, throughout his flat.
Not a "suitable materials with sound damping qualities" to be seen, or not heard.

It's like living under the stage while the cast of river-dance tap-dance.

Morning, noon and night, he is up there, like a heard of elephants.

Now the situation has been explained, the question:

Are the leaseholders obliged to take action against him, to make him get "suitable materials with sound damping qualities" or could they say "we chose not to."

Secondly, if they decided not to, who would I have to take to court to get it enforced, him, or them?
 
Ok, here goes.

I live in a flat, one in a block of 4.
This flat is mine, bought with a mortgage.
As it's a flat in a block of 4, it is a leasehold, rather than a freehold.

There is a man who lives in the flat above mine.
His flat is his, like mine is mine.
As it is the same building, his flat is like mine, a leasehold.

It stated in the leasehold contract:

"No person shall reside in the flat unless the floor thereof is covered with carpet rugs or other suitable materials with sound damping qualities except that the same may be removed for cleaning repairing or decorating or for some similar temporary purpose" (word for word from my copy).

The man above has laminate flooring, throughout his flat.
Not a "suitable materials with sound damping qualities" to be seen, or not heard.

It's like living under the stage while the cast of river-dance tap-dance.

Morning, noon and night, he is up there, like a heard of elephants.

Now the situation has been explained, the question:

Are the leaseholders obliged to take action against him, to make him get "suitable materials with sound damping qualities" or could they say "we chose not to."

Secondly, if they decided not to, who would I have to take to court to get it enforced, him, or them?

Might be worth a quick chat with the CAB not sure if it is the sort of thing they could help with or not, but it's free to ask.
 
Have you talked to him?

Have you talked to the guy upstairs?... It might not hurt to open a line of discussion about it and point out where the papers talk about what you posted... maybe his reads different... if not, ask him if he can buy some carpet or something.

Living in apartment type things or condos is not a lot of fun because you have so many people that are litterally 20 feet away.
 
Very similar problem with the flat above mine but no clause is stated with tenancy/residancey agreement concerning dampening.. however..regardless of this, if the disturbance cuased is creating distress/disturbance outside the flat to other occupants of the building then then it is basicly breaking the law.. environmental health board can step in and get it sorted.

Edit:... laminate flooring will have a "reasonable" level of dampening when fitted if done by professional btw, expect for nothing to be done about that by the leaseholder/landlord UNLESS an official body gets involved.

Also.. it should be plainly obvious to people above that such activity will cause a problem to the people below, can't often deal with ignorance personaly without making it worse ;)
 
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Interesting, but not difficult. AT the moment he is in breach of his lease. The question then becomes who can enforce that breach. Normally covenants contained in the lease are given to the superior landlord or more often than not to a tenancy company which holds the freehold. If there is a correctly established tenancy company then you should have a share in that company.

I would suggest you take a look firstly at your lease and see who has the benefits of the covenants and therefore who can enforce them.

It might then be worth a gentle letter or indeed seeing him and explaining how his laminate flooring is making your life difficult and wonder whether he can perhaps make it easier on you by covering the floor with rugs.

If he decides that he will not help then remind him of the lease terms and how he may be in breach.

It is often a condition of a UK mortgage that the homeowner complies in full with the terms of the lease. If he is in breach then he is potentially in default under his lease and it may leave him open for repossession proceedings (the nuclear option).

Hope this helped:yay:
 
Thanks for the replies. basically confirms what I already thought.
The man is hard to approach for a number or reasons, the worst being mental illness which means any negative comments to him re his behaviour makes it worse! (He gets worried about your complaint, and this worry upsets him, and when he is upset he gets louder.)
 
Thanks for the replies. basically confirms what I already thought.
The man is hard to approach for a number or reasons, the worst being mental illness which means any negative comments to him re his behaviour makes it worse! (He gets worried about your complaint, and this worry upsets him, and when he is upset he gets louder.)

You just answered your own question ?
You know he has a mental problem, how? Who cares for him with that?
Explain to them and they will help, or see him get worse...as you rightly think. The last thing they would wish.

It's not simply the lease BTW, it's noise nuisance and covered by your local council just like the noisy bastard next door to me was once with his noisy floors and ignorance...asked nicely ..ignored ..rang council...sorted...took a guy to visit and about a month total for me.

I feel for you, it's really annoying next door nevermind overhead. Hope you shut them up quickly and peacefully. Try the sword if the pen doesn't work, that proverb is just hype you know ;), neighbours aren't as scared by a Parker Gold nib as a sharp blade :laugh:

t
 
one thing to remember is you do have to live there will complaining make the situation worse for you then the herd of elephants tromping around upstairs ( probably not )

just something to think of if he is mentaly unstable that i think would be more of the concern then the noise from above
 
The problem with the mental thing is that because I am not a relative I can do nothing.
I have spoken to his carers, and to be blunt, they care for him, but care not for ME!

I have spoken to the paramedics one more occasions than I care to remember, asking it be noted that he is not only making himself ill, but making my life hell, and that I will have to take drastic actions soon if his condition can not be improved. (he lived above me for 6 years no problem, in the last 12 months he has gone downhill fast)

I have spoken to his GP (who is not actually allowed to say she is, or is not, his GP, so I might have been speaking to the wrong person.)

Another neighbour has spoken to his case worker. She, the neighbour is also a care worker, albeit in a differing field of care, and knows the case worker professionally.

Part of the problem is that he appears fully rational when in the company of others. This means that when I complain about his behaviour I am talking of a form of behaviour he never exhibits in front of others. It makes it look like I am making it up.

He can spend 9 hours saying "I am not well" with every breath. Knock on his front door and ask "Are you OK?" and his reply is "N-n-n-n-n-Not bad."

Ah, well, I will lock this after this post.

I know what I need to know, I just need to decide how to proceed.
 
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