Leaseholders Claim Against Their Freeholder For Over £90,000 Due To Defective Roof
Hodge Jones & Allen acted for joint owners of a leasehold property in Lewisham. They purchased the property in March 2017 of a first floor, split-level, 2-bedroom, terrace house. The ground floor was occupied by a Lewisham council tenant.
Upon moving into the property, the leaseholders almost immediately recognised issues in relation to the roof. The issues with the roof were so bad, that it was almost uninhabitable. Our clients eventually moved out of the property in December 2019 and moved into rental accommodation.
Our clients first raised a complaint under the council’s internal complaints procedure and it was accepted that they first notified the council of the defective roof in August 2017, and the council’s adjudicator accepted in March 2021 as to the roof being defective.
Despite the acceptance from the council, they still failed to undertake the appropriate works, and so our clients engaged our services in December 2021.
Bahareh Amani, their Property Disputes solicitor, engaged in pre-action correspondence with the council, until June 2022, in order to reach a settlement without the need for an issued claim in the courts. Unfortunately, the council was not willing to engage and so Hodge Jones & Allen went ahead and issued a claim on behalf of our clients. The council filed a defence, and the claim was listed for directions and trial.
After substantial effort and time was put into negotiating a settlement, Bahareh and the HJA housing team were able to reach a satisfactory settlement for our clients who received all of their accommodation costs whilst they were out of the property, in addition to full costs to renovate the interior which was damaged as a result of the defective roof, as well as compensation for the inconveniences suffered.
The claim settled for £91,292 plus payment of our clients costs.
Bahareh Amani, Partner in the Property Disputes Team has extensive property dispute experience in bringing claims on behalf of leaseholders where their freeholders have failed to carry out their duties and obligations under the lease.
