Elderly leaseholder must renovate castle and then leave

Elderly leaseholder must renovate castle and then leave

An elderly widow has been a leaseholder of a castle owned by Stichting Utrechts Landschap for 40 years. Shortly before the ground lease ended, she was contacted by the nature organization subpoenaed. Which demands that the lady be ordered to do maintenance work on the castle. She must complete that work before she leaves the castle permanently. Lawyer real estate law Robert van Ewijk specializes in leasehold and tells of the judgment of the court.

Leasehold of estate, carriage house and castle

Utrechts Landschap issued an estate, coach house and castle in a long lease in 1984 to the now deceased husband of the woman. According to Quote involves the medieval Moersbergen castle in Doorn and the lady in question is now 85 years old. The ground lease was entered into for the duration of 30 years and has been extended twice in the meantime. The last agreed end date is April 1, 2024.

Maintenance obligation in leasehold deed: leaseholder must pay maintenance

The leasehold deed contains a maintenance obligation. Under it, the leaseholder is responsible for all maintenance of the castle. Not only of small daily maintenance, but also the costs of major maintenance and necessary renovations. That maintenance obligation reads (in brief) as follows:

“The leaseholder shall be obliged to fully maintain the leasehold during the term of the leasehold, to the satisfaction of the owner, at his expense.

(...)

The cost of all (daily and gross) repairs, maintenance, repairs, renewals and the like shall therefore be borne entirely by leaseholder, (...)”

End of lease in sight: leaseholder refuses to do maintenance

When the end of the emphyteusis period approaches, a dispute arises between Utrechts Landschap and the widow. Utrechts Landschap summons her to fix the overdue maintenance, but the woman refuses. For this she argues that it was agreed that Utrechts Landschap would do the maintenance on the roofs. She further argues that there is no fall protection on the roof, so she cannot even have the other maintenance work done because it is not safe.

Utrechts Landschap sues leaseholder for overdue maintenance

Because the parties cannot reach a mutual agreement, sue Utrechts Landschap the leaseholder. The nature organization demands that the leaseholder be ordered to perform maintenance. To ensure that she actually does so, a substantial penalty is attached to the claim. If it were up to Utrechts Landschap, the lady would have to pay a penalty of €2,500 per day with a maximum of €750,000 if it did not perform the maintenance.

Judge orders leaseholder to perform maintenance

The judge only partially goes along with the leaseholder's defenses. The lady was right about the maintenance of the roof, but that was all. She is then ordered to fix the other overdue maintenance. The fact that there is no fall protection does not diminish her maintenance obligations, according to the judge. Even the fact that the ground lease is about to end does not change this. It is true that the leaseholder still argues that no state of maintenance was drawn up at the time the lease took effect, but the court finds that the state of maintenance at the time of delivery to the owner, “should be at least reasonable”.

Lawyer leasehold in dispute between owner and leaseholder

While it may seem unfair that the leaseholder in this case was ordered to do large-scale work shortly before the lease expired, that is what the parties agreed to. Therefore, the lady is ordered to this maintenance. However, the penalty is mitigated. It is not clear from the ruling whether the ground lease lawyer negotiated an extension of the ground lease right or tried to reach another solution. Do you have questions or a right of leasehold or have a leasehold dispute? Then please contact up with the leasehold lawyer From Lexys Lawyers.