Leasehold property / maintenance fees

lil_miss_2

If a property is leasehold, how negotiable are maintenance fees? We have seen a property where there are communal areas to some of the flats, but not to the one we are interested in. Can this be a tool for negotiating maintenance fees?
Thank you

hazeyj

Possibly. But maintainence fees are charged per apartment and usually include costs such as general cleaning, buildings insurance, fees for accounting, chasing tenants for payment of service charge incuding court costs etc, window cleaning, fire alarm maintainence so it may not be open for negotiation. You coud always approach the management company to see what exactly is included in their fees.

Chick

Hmm, I would tend to agree with everything that hazeyj has said- the management company will send you information outlining all the individuals costs within the fees.
Things like window cleaning, bin collection, cleaning of the outside areas are pretty much spread even across all the flats.

To be honest, I don't think there is much chance of negotiating the fees...your best bet is to check with the current owners to see what they are paying at the moment in terms of maintenance fees & ground rent.

Once you are in, it is very likely you will be paying exactly the same- this was the case for me- that is, while I was in the process of buying, the current owners sent me some invoices to illustrate the costs they paid to the management company.
Hope this helps!