Council Flat - Regeneration Fee's???

Martin81162

First of all you need to get some professional advice rather than listening to the half baked scare-mongering that you have get on forums.

LAs do not weight charges against leaseholders. If you read the lease agreement, you will see that leaseholders are responsible for a percentage of major works costs.

LAs are bound by very strict EU rules concerning procurement, if they break these rules they could face very costly legal battles with disgruntled contractors. These rules were agreed by our government so it's them that you should be blaming.

If you buy a flat in a privately owned block you could be in for a lot worse. Private landlords have a reputation for overcharging leaseholders but LAs are probably a safer bet.

All leaseholders should be aware of the facts before buying. There are always service charges and other costs. READ THE LEASE AGREEMENT.

As for forcing people to pay, if you owe someone money then it is your responsibility to pay up. Some LAs offer low interest or interest free loans and a good leaseholder will plan for these additional costs. Try and find a property that has a sinking fund.

And finally, leaseholders are never happy when they have to pay for major works, I've never heard of anyone who actually wants to pay for improvements to their block, but they all know the rules when they sign up.

moremore

Council's employ private contractors from EU countries to do work in people flats, the contractors are not supervised properly and are not very good. Firstly, because contractors from EU do not know the UK system and electrical regulations. Their systems are different. Also, they do not comply with building regulation as they are not aware of them. After EU contractors have finished a job they council has to get their maintenance department to correct all the mistakes made by the contractors, more upheaval for tenants to say the least.

The contractor will employ people from their own country and pay them the minimum wage as opposed to what say plumbers or electricians are paid in UK.

Councils are looking to make money from people where ever they can.

It is true about caretakers in the block I am living in we can hear everyone bowels habits because the insulation is so bad. We have had ex drug offenders doing care taking and ended up in him selling drugs in the estate. Council has to give everyone equal opportunity and in the end it is the public that suffers. We had nothing but lazy caretakers and it really grates when the papers say that it is the tenants fault for estates being in such poor conditions. It is lazy caretaker and supervisor that cause the problems not their tenants.

A case was brought to court by a tenant about bad insulation in council block but it was lost as the judge said that it would cost the council too much to do insulations of their properties.
We are being charged for putting in a Digital aerial that is not needed this is only to make money for the council contractors.
We had had windows put that were not right for the block and it has caused a large crack near the 2 floor of the block underneath the lintel underneath the window has a large crack in it, when it rains the water pours through it and the council knows about it for years but choose to do nothing about it. [FONT=&quot]:eek:[/FONT]