Validity of Lease of Agreement

[Lindum]

Could you provide me with some expert advice.

I purchased a flat (complex of 10)that I live in with mywife in August 2008 on an 999 year leaseand have not been happy with outstanding maintenance issues, although some havebeen completed lately, our concern is the validity of our Agreement of Lease.

Contract of Agreementstates when the last lease is soldthen maintenance issues/cleaning will be the responsibility of the MaintenanceCompany , service charges would be set each owner (tenant) having one share andbeing a member of.

Currently I am aware that six properties have sold (four toa Finance Company) all have been let (sublet) the remaining properties have been taken offthe market and are now let by the builders, our flat remains the one propertylived in by the owner.

Could someone on the panel clarify the Tenants condition:

Not to assign, sublet, mortgage or change part of thePremises separately from the rest of it provided that this shall not provideany subletting by the way of Assured Shorthold Tenancy for a term not exceedingtwenty four months.

We did purchase the flat expecting some of the others to be privatelylived in by the owners, this has not been the case, our position is that wehave now put the property on the market for sale although I realise that wewill need legal advice at some point regarding the Agreement of Lease..

I hope this is not to long winded…

Thanks

Ray

[partrim]

I can't comment on your specifics, as I would need to see the lease in its entirity to do that. I am also not a Solicitor, so if in doubt please consult one! Also, I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for, so have made some assumptions in my answer.

To clarify in general terms, however:

The 'not to assign' clause is generally used to stop you from sub-letting your flat in fragments - e.g. letting bedroom-by-bedroom; physically separating your property and letting each portion; or moving 3 different families in on 3 different tenancy agreements.

This shouldn't stop you selling your flat. When it says 'separately from the rest' this refers to your flat only and not the complex as a whole. i.e. you can sell your flat separately from the rest of the complex - but you can't sell / sublet half your flat to Joe Bloggs and the other half to Jane Smith!

If I have got the gist of your query right, my advice would be to have a chat with a solicitor about the sale of the property in general (you will need to appoint one at some point anyway) and give them a copy of the tenancy agreement for them to check.

[paulo]

the clause is saying where there is a let it should not be more than a of twenty four months. Because the other owners are absent you may have issues when it comes to getting repairs done because you will all be part of the management company. Also all the other owners are investors so may not have the same motivation as you. Please can you complete my on line survey at http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=36546qptyw I am investigating leasehold issues as part of my Msc studies.