CONTENTS – 1 New Barnsbury planning approval and Old Barnsbury’s planning application – 2 Section 8.0 Residents’ charter agreement reached with Old Barnsbury Leaseholders with Newlon in Dec 2021 – 3 Flood damage 23/10/22 – 4 Barnsbury Residents Group meeting – community hall Thurs 8th Dec 6pm-8pm – 5 Seasonal Greeting from Sally & Mark your Old Barnsbury Leaseholder reps
1. New Barnsbury planning approval and Old Barnsbury’s planning application
Planning permission for New Barnsbury – demolition and rebuild of new blocks – was approved on 29th November. For anyone not up to date on the implications, the detailed report is a recommended read as it a makes very clear what will now be happening in the area very close to us.
Old Barnsbury’s planning application takes place on Tuesday 6th December – a similar detailed report makes it clear what’s happening, albeit without any phasing information.
Click to access Committee%20Report%20-%20Old%20Barnsbury.pdf
2. Section 8.0 Residents’ charter agreement reached with Old Barnsbury Leaseholders with Newlon in Dec 2021
You will all recall being updated last year on an agreement to changes in Section 8.0 of the draft residents’ charter reached as follows:
Offer to Old Barnsbury Leaseholders
8.1 Resident Leaseholders
Leases where leaseholders are resident in their homes at the date Outline Planning Permission is granted will be permanently excluded from the charges for the transformation works described in the offer document. This exclusion is noted against the individual leases of confirmed resident leaseholder and wholly transferable to any subsequent leaseholder if the lease is later sold.
This exclusion is fully protected in the event that leaseholders subsequently sub-let, within the terms of the lease and other legal requirements, or sell their homes.
Sinking Funds on those leases will not be deducted for refurbishment works as that is a form of charging.
Exactly how residency is to be determined still needs to be clarified.
Nothing changes in individual leases in respect of these Newlon commitments, it’s essentially a note on file for the position against each flat at the time outline planning permission is granted which can be referenced in future sale searches etc.
What Newlon is doing is making a public proposal and commitment about how they will implement their commitments in the Offer document and this commitment will override the original content in the Draft Residents’ charter (issued January 2021).
8.2 Non-Resident Leaseholders
Old Barnsbury non-resident Leaseholders will be charged the full cost of external works, except where these are improvements and the lease is a non-charging lease.
Charges will be subject to a cap of £50,000. Newlon anticipates the amount will be below
this and will give estimates.
8.3 All Old Barnsbury Leaseholders
Newlon will consult all residents including tenants and leaseholders and be as clear as it can as to which works are happening to which block when and the costs.
Where windows or doors which conform to the requirements of the transformation have aleady been installed, they can remain and the costs passed to the non-resident leaseholder will be reduced. Newlon will honour any written agreement given when windows or doors were fitted with permission.
Newlon will follow Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Newlon cannot give loans or put a charge on properties to pay for works. If the law changes to allow that Newlon will consider doing so.
Newlon will review and publish its adherence to these commitments annually.
During recent discussions however, Newlon’s Property Services director revoked approval of this agreement, although later confirmed formal agreement to the re-charging element under 8.1. However, Newlon has not formally reaffirmed commitment to other paragraphs. the latest from Newlon’s CEO is as follows:
‘I am aware there is a meeting already booked for Newlon to hopefully formally approve the changes below, I imagine there will need to be a brief consultation with Old Barnsbury residents before they can then be absolutely finalised’.
In addition, despite being requested several times to formally advise of the means by which leaseholder residency will be determined and confirm the day on which leaseholder residency will be determined, Newlon’s directors have declined to respond to these points or agree to a meeting with us.
As a group, we suggest that we re-group early in the new year to agree a position on this, we have been offered support from local councillors as needed.
Suggest date for a January zoom call is: Thursday 12th January 19:00-20:00. Please send a message to barnsburyleaseholders@gmail.com if you’d like to join and we can send a link nearer the time.
3. Flood damage 23/10/22
A fellow leaseholder got in touch to ask if anyone else has been impacted by flood damage to Vittoria House caused by heavy rain on 23/10/2022. The heavy rainfall and the poor drainage outside the walkway caused internal damage to the property. If you were affected, please get in touch and I will connect you with each other so you can compare experiences and Newlon’s responses.
4. Barnsbury Residents Group meeting – community hall Thurs 8th Dec 6pm-8pm
All welcome
5. Seasonal Greeting from Sally & Mark your Old Barnsbury Leaseholder reps
We need more help in 2023, please get in touch if you can offer your services to the group!
Barnsbury Estate Leaseholders Group 