The Pad is a purpose-built block of 50 concierge-served apartments at 45 Holloway Road. Opened in 2009, it is part of a redevelopment of 37-49 Holloway Road, and 29 Highbury Corner, by Shaftsbury House (Development) Ltd, to provide a five storey building (plus basement), with commercial uses at ground and basement level and residential units above. 37 Holloway Road is a separate housing block, managed by  a housing association. 39, 41 and 43 Holloway Road are ground floor commercial units, facing onto Holloway Road. [47 and 49 Holloway Road are no longer current addresses.]

Most flats in England are held under Leasehold. This means that rather than owning your apartment outright, you have a legal agreement with the Freeholder, who owns the whole building, (also called the Landlord) to occupy the apartment for a specified number of years. In return for this use, you pay Ground Rent to the Freeholder. The lease defines the contractual rights and obligations of both the Freeholder and the Leaseholder.

If you “own” your apartment in the Pad you are a lessee or leaseholder. Your lease gives you rights to the property as outlined in the conditions laid out in that document. A little confusingly, the owner of the Freehold of the Pad may also refer to you as a tenant.
More usually, when we refer to the tenant we mean the person who lives in the apartment, that is, a resident who pays rent to the lessee in return for the right to occupy the apartment. (A tenant will have an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.)
A lessee may of course live in their apartment and be an “owner occupier”. Alternatively, they may be a “buy to let” owner.

Elmdon Real Estate LLP bought the freehold of the Pad from the original developer (Shaftsbury House [Developments] Limited) in 2011. See FREEHOLD section below.

The residential leases for the Pad apartments were originally valid for 150 years from 24th June 2007. Lessees are able to extend these by negotiation with the Freeholder, however, so your lease could last longer.

There are 50 leasehold apartments at 45 Holloway Rd. Some may be owned by organisations rather than individuals and some leaseholders may own more than one apartment. Some leaseholders are ‘buy-to-let’ landlords, who sub-let their flats to tenants.

All lessees have an automatic duty, under the terms of their lease, to be members of the Management Company. When a lessee sells their flat, that obligation must be passed on to the new owner.

The solicitor you used to purchase your apartment is likely to be your first port of call, but you may find the independent advice at https://www.lease-advice.org useful

Most flats in England are held under Leasehold. This means that rather than owning your apartment outright, you have a legal agreement with the Freeholder, who owns the whole building, (also called the Landlord) to occupy the apartment for a specified number of years. In return for this use, you pay Ground Rent to the Freeholder. The lease defines the contractual rights and obligations of both the Freeholder and the Leaseholder.

Elmdon Real Estate LLP bought the freehold of the Pad from the original developer (Shaftsbury House [Developments] Limited) in 2011 for the sum of £220,000. Under conditions of the Landlord and Tenant Act lessees were offered the opportunity to purchase the freehold for the same price but there was not a wish to do so from a majority of lessees. (Please note that while the management company owned by the lessees is called Shaftsbury Management Co Ltd, the original owner of the freehold was a completely separate company.)

Lessees’ obligations are spelled out in their lease and include to:

• pay Ground Rent. The amounts of this are defined, through to 2157;
• not obstruct windows or encroach on the landlord’s rights by eg construction;
• notify the landlord of defects in the flat which place a duty on the landlord;
• pay all council taxes, rates, etc related to the flat;
• pay for any services (electricity, gas, water, telecommunications, etc) consumed in relation to the flat (including the proportion attributable to the flat for communal services, paid through the service charge);
• repair the interior of the flat and redecorate every seven years and at the end of the lease;
• allow the landlord access to the flat to carry out necessary repairs;
• allow the landlord access to the flat to inspect its condition and state of repair – and carry out repairs needed to remedy any breach of these obligations;
• not sublet part of the flat;
• register any sublease with the landlord’s solicitor – and pay the solicitor’s reasonable charge for this;
• only use the flat for residential purposes and not for trade, business or illegal activities;
• clean the inside of windows at least once a month;
• not make or allow any noise that can be heard outside the flat;
• not extend the flat or make structural alterations;
• not fix or attach poles, aerials, masts, signs, adverts, etc;
• not to bring in specially combustible, inflammable or explosive materials, excessively heavy items or noisy machinery
• not to cause the common parts to become dirty, untidy or obstructed;
• not to keep any pets except in cages or tanks;
• place all refuse in the bins in the Bin Store;

Lessees should consult their own leases to see the full list of provisions.

The landlord’s obligations to lessees are spelled out in the lease but, more generally, leaseholder rights are also currently under review by the government, such as a right to buy the freehold from their landlord under certain circumstances. The landlord is not entitled to impose new or arbitrary conditions where these are not included in the lease.

Shaftsbury Management Company Ltd was established to manage and maintain the Pad on behalf of the residential leaseholders. All leaseholders at the Pad are required by their lease to be a member of the Company.

Managing the building through a lessee owned Management Company allows lessees to have control over the decisions made relating to their building and which Managing Agents are used and to control expenditure as far as possible.

Should the Management Company prove unable to fulfil its obligations under the terms of the leases the decisions over how the building should be managed would revert to the freeholder but service charges would still be payable by the lessees.

All leaseholders at the Pad are members of the management company. The company is owned equally and jointly by its members.

Directors of the Board have to be lessees. Any lessee may ask to join the Board. Applications may be made through this website (see here). This page also lists the names of the current directors. It is up to the current directors to decide how to manage applications and whether to set a limit to the size of the Board. To date any lessee who has asked to be a director has been accepted.

We pay a service charge and into a ‘sinking fund’. The service charge pays for the managing agent to maintain and manage the block on behalf of the management company (ie the leaseholders). It covers things like landscape maintenance, insurances, concierge costs, communal services (lifts, aerials, entryphones, power, water and cleaning to common parts, etc), building repairs, and the managing agent’s fees. The sinking fund is a reserve built up over time to cover more major repairs or alterations to the block and other special contingencies. See section below for more information on the service charge and the sinking fund.

The leaseholders representing the shops (Tesco etc) contribute to the upkeep of the building according to the terms of their leases.

The building is managed by London Block Management, 4th floor, 9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD. The main point of contact is James Lee, Director
020 7870 4000

info@blockmanagement.com
www.blockmanagement.com

The managing agent arranges for management and maintenance of the block on behalf of the management company.

The management company (ie the leaseholders) pay the managing agent’s fees, which are collected through the service charge).

The managing agent is appointed by the management company (ie the leaseholders).

The Management Company is responsible under the terms of the leases of the residential parts of The Pad for providing the services to the Pad as set out in the leases for the benefit of the Building which is of course to the benefit of the lessees. The costs of so doing are to be paid by the lessees in accordance with the terms of the leases.

Service Charge Accounts are posted each year and are a guide to how the service charge is spent. Thet are archived in ths documents section of this site.

The Service Charge is allocated  to each apertment/lessee in accournance with the Schedule that was calculated in accordance with the terms of the leases before the first occupancy of the building.

The Service Charge Year runs from 25 December to the following 24 December each year as set out in your lease. The Anticipated Service Charges for the year are payable half yearly in advance on the 25th December and 24 June in each year.

The sinking fund is a reserve built up over time to cover major repairs or alterations to the block and to provide for special contingencies.

Section 20 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 sets out the three-stage consultation procedure with which to follow when carrying out qualifying works to your building where the contribution from any one lessee exceeds £250. Major work, such as internal or external redecoration or repair, would be likely to qualify as Section 20 work.

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If your problem is a simple one relating to the everyday running of the building then usually the concierge will be able to help. If your issue is more complicated or relates to the payment of fees, contact the managing agent.

You can contact the Board or the directors collectively through the managing agent, or by using the contact forms on this site. If the directors do not feel the issue can be resolved by the managing agent it will be discussed at the next Board meeting.

The cleaning of windows for the common parts of the building is the responsibility of the Management Company and is one of the services supervised by the Managing Agent.    Lessees and or their tenants are responsible for cleaning the inside of their own windows and typically leases ask for this to be done once every month.