Deeds of Conditions useful when it comes to properties

Play attention to the small print when buying a house. Picture: TSPL

PROBLEMS can still arise, so take notice of small print, writes Michael Sheridan

DEEDS of Conditions can be very useful documents. They enable, for example, separate owners of flats within a building to own their respective homes outright but subject to the terms of the deed – something that cannot be achieved under English property law, where flats can only be leased, rather than owned outright.

Deeds of Conditions will identify those parts of the building owned by individuals and those parts owned jointly by all of the owners, and other parts which are owned jointly by some of the owners.

They will also identify the rights of individual owners over parts of the building which they do not own, such as access rights for inspection and repair.

They also set out the obligations of owners in respect of the maintenance of the various parts of the building, including the proportions in which various owners shall be responsible for upkeep of property owned jointly.

Deeds of Conditions can be lengthy and seriously soul destroying to read but may nevertheless be essential for these purposes. Just recently, however, I have been assailed from all sides with problems arising from Deeds of Conditions and shared ownership in general.

A client complains that her factor insists on charging for the common maintenance and repairs not on the basis of one share for each of the nine flats in her block but rather on the basis of one share for each of the 21 flats contained in that block and in two other adjoining blocks.