• Arguing With Neighbours Over Ownership/demise Of The Roof Of The Building

    By Guest on 15th Feb 2024

    In a nutshell, our building only has 2 flats (A and B), 50/50 share of the Freehold, and the roof had been flattened and converted into a terrace by the previous owners of Flat B (we own flat A). The roof is absent from the land registry Title, the outline in red from the Lease which shows the physical illustration of the property (it's not even shown in drawings, as opposed to our garden which is),
    There is only one ambiguous clause in the description of the property which says: "Flat B, the floor plan of which is shown edged red on plan 1 including: The joists and other structural ceiling supports supporting them, the roof, and the air space above the roof". This is a huge issue, as there have been severe leaks in the roof and we have a financial interest in the same.

    I believe they have misunderstood this clause, which is present in the Lease of both flats (although their Lease was issued a year prior to ours). I agree the flats extend to the roof joists / structural supports that the roof lies upon but not the roof itself. The property title with Land Registry also says: "Only the first, second and third floor bathroom are included in the title". The roof is on the fourth floor, above the bathroom and is not shown in the title or Lease.

    The only document the neighbours have procured is an email exchange of the previous owner of their flat (B), talking with a solicitor about changing the lease to add that specific clause that mentions the roof.

    My question is - is the clause ambiguous enough to take them to court, considering the clause is in both our Leases? Is it legal to amend the Lease going against the title of the property and the red enclosed outline, which explicitly excludes the roof?

    Thanks in advance for your help.

  • 2 Answers

    By Guest on 21/02/2024

    It would be necessary to view the lease as a whole in order to answer the question fully, but what is it that you are trying to achieve? To force repairs to the roof? Or to be able to carry out repairs? I assume that B is the upper flat and yours is the lower flat?

  • By Guest on 27/02/2024

    Hi, thanks for your response. Our flat is A (ground and lower ground) and flat B is first, second floor and third floor. We want the neighbours to buy the roof of of us. That clause is the only mention of the word roof in the entire Lease.

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