Retirement flats

squashy

I wonder if there are any tips, dos and don'ts etc on the forum?

My Grandma is seriously looking into selling her house and buying a retirement flat/sheltered accomodation. It is a new complex in an ideal location which will still allow her to get out and about by bus whilst having a built-in community centre, laundry and most importantly a 24 warden on call.

The seller has a few offers on, one of which is the first year free (including all utility bulls covered) and all moving costs paid, this seems to good to be true (so I guess it probably is!) The usual terms are that it costs £40 per week service charge on top of the purchase price. She is hoping to sell her medium sized house and buy one outright although she was thinking about shared ownership schemes. They do an offer where they will purchase the house but we advised her against this as she would be unlikely to get the full asking price.

She is a little worried about the future though and wants to know what would happen when the time came to sell it (I am assuming she means if she is too unwell or after she's gone).

What are others experiences?

PasturesNew

I'd go into one like a shot ... I wish they had them for younger people

Fire_Fox

Is this a housing association/ not for profit development or a commercial development? Big difference in how likely they are to want to rip your Grandma off!

Is this a new development, if so how fixed are those service charges? In FTB-land it's common for service charges to double in the first few years as they are set artificially low to attract buyers. Special offers on new builds are usually designed to inflate the purchase price above and beyond what it's worth - look at land registry sold prices of similar sized flats in the area.

Traditional shared ownership is usually for those who can't get on the housing ladder any other way not for someone who could buy outright? You would normally have to pay rent on the part of the property you don't own - again if this is a commercial developer look carefully at how much this can increase. Get EVERYTHING in writing.

squashy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Is this a housing association/ not for profit development or a commercial development? Big difference in how likely they are to want to rip your Grandma off!

Is this a new development, if so how fixed are those service charges? In FTB-land it's common for service charges to double in the first few years as they are set artificially low to attract buyers. Special offers on new builds are usually designed to inflate the purchase price above and beyond what it's worth - look at land registry sold prices of similar sized flats in the area.

Traditional shared ownership is usually for those who can't get on the housing ladder any other way not for someone who could buy outright? You would normally have to pay rent on the part of the property you don't own - again if this is a commercial developer look carefully at how much this can increase. Get EVERYTHING in writing.

Thank you, very useful to hae another POV. It is a commercially built development and it states that it is a 125year leasehold so I dont know if that gives any indication of a fixed price. I will make sure we ask about service charge escalation. The purchase price whilst not exactly a bargain is not off-the-scale either so she has said she is happy to pay this (£99k). We have looked and think her current house is likely to fetch around £135k.

missile

My mum sold her house and moved to sheltered flat when my pop died and it has worked out very well for her. She is not bothered with noisy youngsters and has a pool of potential friends who she can socialise with or not if she wants.

carefullycautious

Im with Pastures on this. I also have been looking but because there is an age gap between me and hubby I doubt they would let me in. There are some in my area that do not seem too bad service charge wise.

princeofpounds

Get VERY clear guidance on what services are included and what are extras.

Understand thoroughly how the service charges work. This will be in the lease.

As said above, the usual tactic is to make charges seems low initially and then escalate them.

If you appear to be safe from such tactics and like the property and the management of the block it can work out well.

dexter_fan

check out the website for the Elderly Accommodation Counsel - great website and you can compare with other retirement providers