This will depend on specific terms within your lease, when buying a leasehold property you should ensure you have a copy of the lease and read it to work out what your responsibilities are and what the Freeholder, Management Company (RMC), Right to Manage Company (RTM) or Managing Agent (MA) is responsible for.

The most common types of repairs and maintenance that we get questions on are:

Structure

Leaseholders are normally responsible for repair and maintenance of non-structural parts of their flats, with the Freeholder or MC responsible for repair and maintenance of the outside of the building and the structure of the building. For example repair of the roof, gutters and communal drains is usually the responsibility of the Freeholder or MC. It is not always straightforward especially if there are balconies, terrace or similar. Responsibility for balconies and terraces will depend on whether the balcony or terrace area is demised to a particular leaseholder and therefore by virtue of it being demised the maintenance and repair of it would fall under the leaseholders responsibility

Doors & Windows

The Freeholder or MC is usually responsible for painting all external surfaces of doors, door frames and window frames and for maintaining and painting communal doors. The leaseholder is normally responsible for maintenance and repair of doors, door frames, window frames, the painting of internal surfaces of doors, door frames and window frames and for the replacement of glass.

Drains

The principle is that any communal pipe or drainage is the responsibility of the Freeholder or MC and any pipe or service installation within a property or serving a single property is the responsibility of the leaseholder. Therefore, the Freeholder or MC is only responsible from the point where a drainpipe serves more than one flat.

The most common cause of blocked drains are:

• Pouring cooking oils and fats down the sink
• Flushing wet wipes, nappies and other unflushable objects
• Hair build-up
• Paper towels and cotton wool
• Coffee grounds
• Food

Blockages are a common problem in flats both within individual flats pipes, or within communal pipes and often this happens due to a blockage cause by one of the above items, so these should not be put down the drains.

Services (Gas, Water, Electric)

These are the responsibility of the service provider up to the meter or isolation point, and the leaseholder from the meter or isolation point onwards. Freeholders and MC’s are only responsible for services in communal arears ie the landlords supply providing light in communal hallways, or an outside tap used for watering the garden.

TV Aerials & Satellite Dishes

Where there is a shared communal aerial or satellite dish this is the responsibility of the Freeholder or MC and this includes the cabling to a single point in the leaseholders flat. Any further internal wiring or signal distribution within the flat is the responsibility of the leaseholder. If there are no communal aerial or satellite dishes both the aerial, satellite dish and cabling is all the responsibility of the leaseholder. Leaseholders should be aware they will need to get permission from the Freeholder or MC to fix an aerial or satellite dish on the building.