Proposed service charges

clutton_2

the council is legally obliged to give you a breakdown of the costs - keep insisting. If they refuse/cannot provide the info you need - your local councillor may be able to put pressure on them to tell you.

If this council has not sold many of its high rise blocks it m ay well be fumbling in the dark as to how to deal with this - just because they are "the council" does not make them any more qualified/knowledgeable than anyone else to be a landlord

However, i refer back to my earlier point - if this flat is not a good buy - if there are so few lenders who will lend on it, you may not be able, or want, to buy it - so i would investigate these financial matters first before wasting what could be un-necessary time on research into service charges.

jm28cardiff

You should only pay towards communal repairs/maintenance, not work done in individual flats.

They should be able to estimate, based on work done in previous years, what the next years service charge will be.

clutton_2

jm28 - the problem may be that there are so few flats in this block in private ownership that the council does not know how to deal with this.

I bought an Ex-LA flat a few years back, and my solicitor negotiated half a dozen changes in the Lease they wanted me to sign, as they had a lease which included illegal clauses.

Herb

I have no experience of high rise but can offer this as a reference;

I have a few ex la flats in Crawley and pay £300 to £500 pa. inc insurance and ground rent. These range from 2 flat single storey to 15 flat 3 storey.

I did pay £1500 once when a new roof was put on (10 flats - I was the only privately owned one)

ixwood

I'd be VERY careful about buying anything lease hold off the council (i.e. any flat). I'm sure I saw some poor woman getting stitched with a £15k bill from the council on telly. I think it might have been on watchdog.

basically, as a private tenant you're liable for a share of the maintainence work to the main building. BUT, the building may be completely run down due to decades of neglect and now it has to be done, will cost small fortunes. And of course you'll have to foot the bill. Even though it wasn't you that neglected the building for years.

Plus, that aside, it doesn't really sound like a great property prospect. Keep your cheap rent from the council, let them pay for any works, save up what you can and hopefully buy elsewhere.

lynzpower

Id tend to agree here with Ixwood.

Why would you want to pay more for the same thing?

Herb

I don't think luvleighr has given enough detail for us to say "don't buy" - what about the right to buy discount? - this could far out weigh the lease costs
Might not - but without the figures nobody here knows.

luvleighr will have the opportunity to pay for a surveyor to give an opinion on the condition of the flat and building if she/he wants.

As for council lease costs being more than a privately owned leased building I disagree. From experience I am far happier having the transparent maintenence costs shown to me by the (hopefully) non profit making council - rather than the theiving underhand dealings of a property management company who's ONLY remit is to make money from property maintenance.

ixwood

As I say, be VERY careful:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3971401.stm

luvleighr

I can't thank you all enough for all of your comments and advice! I'm so glad that I decided to post rather than go ahead blind! However, having read what everyone is saying I've become a little confused as to whether I should go ahead with this right to buy. If I explain my situation then I'd be very interested to hear what you'd do if you were in my shoes.

I've rented this flat from the coucil for 12 years. It's in a Tower block in one of the most grotty area's of Birmingham but the building itself had a major rerurbishment in 1995 (Double glazing, central heating, balcony's enclosed, new kitchens and bathrooms) It seems to be in good repair.

I really dislike the area and would love to move but am stuck as I'm considered adequately housed and have basically no chance of getting a move from the council.

I pay £350 per month in rent.

The property has been valued at £58500 but as I have lived here so long I qualify for the full discount and have been offered the flat for £32500 - saving a substantial £26000


No other flats in the block have been bought and only a hand full in the surrounding blocks have been bought.

My plan was as follows:

Buy the flat.
In a year or so, rent the flat out.
Continue to rent out until the building is demolished.
Remortgage in a few years to release equity for a deposit on somewhere decent.

Anyway, if these humungous service charges are certain then I can't really afford to go through with my plan - If they can be reduced then I can.

I think I've included the key facts now

What would you do?

ixwood

I did a quick google and found that article. It's not up to date, but as I say I saw something about this on the telly recently.