A guide to looking after your property

Your lease is likely to restrict you from making any alterations or additions to your property without getting approval. No matter how minor these seem, it’s best to let Gateway know your plans as soon as you can and we’ll check the details with the Freeholder and, where relevant, against Planning and Building requirements. Please don’t start any work beforehand as that could be a costly mistake. Modifications may be seen as unsightly, breaking your lease, or affect the building’s structure.

We operate a service charge account for best practice. That means the payments you make are kept in an account that is separate from our trading accounts. The money is used solely to pay for expenditure on your building. Most leases require payment in advance, ensuring we can pay bills as they’re due.

At the beginning of each year, we will send you an estimate of likely service charge expenditure (based on the previous year’s experience and known commitments). We’ll then invoice you, requiring payment in accordance with the terms of your lease. Your prompt payment will ensure we can maintain services. We will not know the final service charge costs until the end of the financial year. The final cost may vary from our estimate, often as we cannot foresee unexpected expenditure. Soon after the end of the financial year, you’ll receive Service Charge Account details, listing all expenditure on your building. This will be certified by an independent Accountant. If expenditure exceeds the budget, we’ll ask for a balancing payment, which is due immediately. Should there be a surplus, we’ll credit this amount into a reserve fund to offset future expenditure. Reserve fund balances will earn interest.

Condensation and mould growth inside a property can be prevented with a few simple measures. See our Factsheet section for practical guidance.

An actual limit is not usually set within a lease, but the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 states that service charge expenses must be reasonable, and the Housing Act allows lessees to challenge unreasonable costs. We’ll always try to provide an efficient service at a reasonable cost, cooperating with lessees to achieve this. What we do is a balancing act as we’re sure you’ll appreciate; we have to try to please everyone in a building, where there are often different points of view. There are several ways in which expenditure can be minimised, as follows:

• many repairs, clean-ups and carpet replacements can be avoided with a little care – for example, if pets aren’t allowed to foul common areas, bicycles or motorbikes aren’t stored in hallways (resulting in dripping oil and damaged paintwork) and cars aren’t parked on grass verges (damaging lawns and flowerbeds)
• advising us promptly of the need for a minor repair often prevents the fault developing into a larger, more expensive problem
• co-operating in allowing access when required saves money – surveyors and contractors who visit a leaseholder at a prearranged time will charge for wasted visits if no one is in.

On rare occasions when there are insufficient funds held for a building to meet current expenditure, perhaps because of unexpected costs, we’ll raise additional invoices during the year.

If an emergency repair is needed, please contact a member of our team looking after your property. If the emergency is outside of the normal office working day, you will have been given an Out-of-Hours Emergency number to call. Provided the repair is to the main fabric of the building or a common area – and you have kept copies of all quotations and invoices – we’ll reimburse you for the reasonable costs incurred.

For substantial repairs, we’ll always try to obtain quotes from a number of contractors. Please note that sometimes it’s not possible for contractors to estimate accurately until they have gained full access to the problem (for instance, it’s only after erecting scaffolding that the true state of a roof can be assessed). A builder’s estimate may subsequently change.

On occasion, we receive complaints about neighbours, typically about excessive noise, parking issues or inappropriate refuse disposal. We endeavour to look at such complaints impartially and objectively. If considered serious, we will write to the lessee (who remains responsible for the actions of any sub-tenant). And if the complaints continue, we may ultimately go to the courts. The law is unwilling to intervene where claims cannot be substantiated, so it’s important that complaining lessees gather a file of evidence (for example, photographs or, in the case of excessive noise, a diary of when problems occurred). If you’re making a serious complaint, try to get other lessees to support it, and be prepared to give evidence in court.

UK Health and Safety Law requires that all blocks of flats have a risk assessment carried out of the common parts, including hallways, stairwells and outside shared space. We’ll arrange for specialist consultants to carry out this assessment for your particular property. This may cover a range of matters, from fire and electrical equipment safety to the control of substances hazardous to health and other statutory obligations.

Occasionally, we are asked by lessees to carry out work that is not within the management service, such as improvements. When this happens, we need all of the lessees in the building to agree to the work, since they will be asked to share the cost.

The responsibility to insure the building normally rests with the Freeholder, Residents Management Company or Leaseholder, depending on the lease terms. Comprehensive buildings insurance policies will cover damage caused by storm, fire and flood, normally subsidence and other perils. In the case of subsidence, the policy excess is £1,000 and typically £250 for all other claims. In these circumstances, you’ll be expected to contribute, probably through your Service Charge Account if the claim relates to common parts, or pay the entire excess if the claim relates to your apartment. If you suffer water damage from another flat, you may be able to recover the excess from the lessee of that flat.

Get in touch and your Gateway Property Manager will arrange a claim against the insurance policy. Insurers may not cover the entire claim if there is an element of improvement work or a policy excess. For example, if the roof needed repairing but was going to be replaced in the near future, it would then be sensible to bring forward the replacement with the insurance company contributing towards the cost of this. Please make sure you follow these steps:

• obtain a claim form from your block management team and complete it, giving as much information as possible. If malicious damage has been caused, for example by a break-in, you’ll also need to provide the police incident number
• obtain two estimates for repairs, but unless it is an emergency do not allow the work to go ahead until you hear from the insurers that the claim is approved
• return the form to us, not the insurance company.

The insurance company may appoint a Loss Adjuster to visit you, assess the claim and advise the insurance company before it agrees to pay out. If the claim is agreed, the insurers will advise you that you may proceed with the work.

We strongly recommend that you read through your deed of transfer thoroughly and seek independent legal advice before purchasing your property. Certain clauses may restrict what you can do to your property and where you can park on the estate. The most common clauses include the following items.

Rules on exterior decorations

On some private estates, external paintwork must follow a set colour scheme, often agreed when the property development gained planning permission.

Limits to external alterations

Before altering the external appearance of your home, you may need to get permission. This is often because the original planning permission defined what could later be altered.

Restrictions on installing TV aerials and satellite dishes

Making external alterations to your property may include adding an outside TV aerial or satellite dish. It’s best to check first, as you may need permission.

Car parking restrictions

Parking on estate roads can be prohibited in deeds because they are narrower than public highways and may not be constructed to the same standards.

These are the areas or facilities shared by everyone on the estate. They vary between developments and can include private roads, verges, communal gardens and landscaped grounds, including children’s play areas, through to street lighting, electric gates, refuse areas, sewers and drainage systems and aerials or satellite dishes for TV reception, to name but a few. Residents normally contribute to the upkeep of all communal areas, whether they use them or not.

If you require a copy of your Deed of Transfer, you can purchase one for a small charge through the HM Land Registry.

For more information, please visit the HM Land Registry website: www.gov.uk/guidance/contact-hm-land-registry

Your deed of transfer should be clear on your contribution towards maintaining communal areas, known as estate rent charges. The charge is not a fixed amount. It will vary depending on the costs of running and managing the development. In the relevant clause, you should be able to see:

• exactly what your payment as a freeholder covers
• your share of the total cost dates by when you need to make payments (often annually or half-yearly in advance)
• if you’ll receive account statements (usually provided annually).

Communal areas of freehold estates, including private roadways, must meet the latest health and safety law. It’s essential that a general risk assessment is carried out. If there’s simply a private road and footpaths, the assessment needn’t be a complex task, but the types of likely risks must be recorded and covered by appropriate solutions. Negligence here is a serious matter and something the RMC Directors could be liable for.