News On The Block

NOTB: Tell us a little bit about your background.

I come from a customer services and support background, with a number of years spent in the IT sector. I have been involved in the leasehold sector since 2004.

NOTB: So, how did leasehold matters first spark your interest?
My interest in leasehold issues was sparked by simply wanting to re-decorate the kitchen of my flat. I needed to find out how to contact the freeholder or the managing agents, eventually learning that the freeholder was deemed ‘absent’ and the managing agents wanted nothing to do with the block.

NOTB: What did you do about the management issues in your block?
I spent a number of years researching the leasehold sector to find out what rights I had under legislation. The problem was that due to a complete lack of interest from other leaseholders, (most of whom were subletting), we failed to meet the prescribed criteria for all the routes available. Eventually we did meet the criteria for Right to Manage (somewhat ironically by a new BTL landlord purchasing enough flats to enable us to do so) and by that time we had also secured the services of a managing agent. The process was made somewhat easier by the fact that we had no freeholder or agent to secure the right from and no management handover. Unfortunately we also didn’t have any money either and had to start collecting service charges from scratch. Later our managing agent approached the LVT and proposed a nominal sum for the purchase of the freehold, which was accepted and duly paid to the Court.

NOTB: How did you come to launch the Leasehold Life Blog? How has sharing your experiences online been received?
My site, Leasehold Life actually started off as a diary blog, as a way to get my personal story out to a wider domain. However, with all the research I was doing in a sector that is so seriously fragmented, it naturally expanded into the information site it is today. Leasehold Life has been received extremely positively by leaseholders, not just because of the quantity of information it holds in the one place but the unique fact that it contains a personal diary about what I do on my own block.

NOTB: You must be one of the few leaseholders to have become an IRPM member. How did that come about?
I was very pleased to become a member of the IRPM. I am in favour of accreditation and wondered whether they would accept me on the strength of my website, as my entry into the sector was a little unorthodox. I was very pleased when they did and when I passed the first exam, those letters after my name gave me a real sense of achievement!
                             
NOTB: What did you do about the ongoing issues with having an absentee landlord?
In the early stages I contacted my local authority for advice. I didn’t know much then and I appreciated the fact that they attended site, took a lot of photographs of roof (which should have been replaced years back) and issued repair notices to the managing agents. However those notices turned out to be invalid and unenforceable as we were long leaseholders! The council could only help if the problems were being reported by renting tenants!

NOTB: What further issues have arisen and how are you dealing with them?
Now the company owns the freehold, we face a different set of problems; arrears and subletting. Before we took over management unfettered subletting was a major problem because whilst our lease requires permission to be sought from the freeholder, there was no one to seek permission from. Despite the fact that this is no longer the case, we asked all of our leaseholder landlords to seek retrospective permission and obtain a Licence to Sublet. These have been steadfastly ignored. Unfortunately these are also the very same leaseholder landlords who don’t pay their service charges, (no matter how fair and reasonable we are), don’t deal with the anti-social behaviour committed by their tenants and who don’t see fit to tell us when they hand over their property to the local council under Private Sector Leasing. This can be a particularly troublesome area to manage because the tenants can often be placed by another borough and block management is entirely left out of the loop. How can we manage effectively if there are parties involved that are invisible to us, and secondly, if arrears are accrued, forfeiture and injunctions are not financially viable. It’s a vicious circle.

NOTB: Recently you took a stand by writing an open letter to Grant Shapps. What motivated you to write to him and what feedback have you had?
I was motivated to write an open letter to Mr Shapps when he announced that he would not licence private sector landlords (who are leaseholders if they purchase a flat). I wrote about my own personal experience and said that it was indicative of what leaseholders were dealing with in varying degrees up and down the country. I also explained that I was very concerned that he would not license managing or letting agents either, providing him with a breakdown of the management structure of a block of flats at any given time. Whilst I received a reply stating that he would get back to me shortly with a more detailed response, unfortunately the response didn’t come from him but from the CLG who said that “the Government recognises the need to strike the right balance of rights and responsibilities between landlords and tenants, (including leaseholders). The current legislative framework can deliver that balance, if it is matched by an increasingly pro-active and positive approach by the professionals in the sector and therefore we are not convinced by the case for regulating managing agents in the leasehold sector”.

NOTB: Do you think that the internet and online social media are of growing importance in the industry? Do you think that the web has given leaseholders a voice they were previously denied?
I personally think that the internet and social media sites are certainly growing in their importance in the industry. For example, as a Twitter user, the information I get from the industry professionals has kept me much more up to date with what’s happening. If I had to rely on trawling the internet alone, I could never keep up! It may be giving leaseholders more of a voice but it doesn’t actually make the sector any less fragmented. Which is what I hope I am doing!

Sharon Crossland, leaseholder and author of the Leasehold Life Website