Property Landlord advice: Block Management and Letting Agents (Part 2)

By Steve Roulstone

There are several areas where having somebody who is qualified to understand the implications of renting leasehold property managing the site is to the advantage of the other Leaseholders and the running of the site (Block Management Company) in general. One of these is the need to ensure that any secondary agreement offered to a Tenant by a Leaseholder carries the requirements of the original lease within it, to ensure many basic stipulations of the site can be upheld.

Upholding the rules          

Without such inclusions, (which can be dealt with reasonably easily by anybody who understands the implications) such basic site rules as ‘No Caravans’ or ‘No Commercial Vehicles’ cannot be enforced as the agreement of the lease is with the leaseholder, not their Tenant The Tenant is only answerable to his legal agreement and if the clauses are not included, then the original Leaseholder in allowing the Tenant to break the lease and is the person therefore answerable to the Management Committee.

Ignorance is no excuse.

There is no way around this as I have found in my own experience, indeed it was only because one Tenant who parked a caravan on a site we Manage was very understanding, that we managed to have the rule enforced. The Leaseholder and therefore Landlord’s only excuse was lack of knowledge, because his Agent had not taken the time to check, which of course must be the situation up and down the country. But there are many clauses which can fall fowl of this problem, such as pets and of course the biggest problem of all, the permission to sub let in the first place.

Permission to rent.

Permission cannot be unreasonably withheld of course for any matter, but if the Leaseholders who live on the site as well as the Freeholder (if not self managed) who’s lease we are discussing here, did not intend the property to be available for rent, then by having a Letting Agent acting as block Managing Agent, whether acting for the Freeholder or the Block management Company (Residents) it is probably in the best interest of all concerned that the rule can be upheld.

Check before signing.

So the golden rule is to check before any sub-let is agreed and yet in all of my time as a Letting Agent who operates as a Block Managing Agent as well, I have never once received a phone call to request confirmation of the contents of the Lease or indeed ask if Permission is given on site, from either other agents or Landlords running their own Management. It begs the question just how many ticking time bombs exist out their?