House Vs apartment – why should I pay rip-off apartment service charges?

Kirri

tia86 wrote: »

I can't remember who it was that said about the high service charge that is set by the directors - where I am we were able to become directors and therefore discuss/control this. I have found this valuable as if I hadn't been at one meeting the cost would have gone up greatly as other individuals have a higher income and were willing to pay more!!

Unfortunately as I'm one of only 4 owners living here against 20 BTL owners I have disagreed with a lot of the things they want to do as it's not reasonable for those living here and so relations with the other directors have deteriorated so much I doubt they would involve me even if I applied to become a director..

I complained about some work they were starting recently that wasn't voted in and I was against and they said they could do this without a vote, after more complaints, they held the AGM without inviting me (claimed to have forgotten) and voted in the work themselves!! They do whatever suits them, but not necessarily for the good of the block.

It probably wouldn't be so bad in a block where most flats are lived in by the owners.. but I still wouldn't recommend anyone buy a flat if they could afford not to.

Jaynorth_2

tia86 wrote: »

I can't remember who it was that said about the high service charge that is set by the directors - where I am we were able to become directors and therefore discuss/control this. I have found this valuable as if I hadn't been at one meeting the cost would have gone up greatly as other individuals have a higher income and were willing to pay more!!

Personally I like my flat as I am a single person and it is good to know there are other people around and added security of other people walking past and seeing if anything odd has happened if you are away for any length of time. Like others have said I don't need to worry about cutting the grass or painting the building. Our maintanence charge is £760 per yr which includes cleaning of communal areas, gardening, heating in hallways, building insurance plus we are trying to build up a reserve as we are a new build.

There was a few issues with some neighbours being noisy at first but this now seems to have settled down. We also have no issue over parking...yet.

The key word here is "yet" and that's the problem because things can change very quickly in a block of flats. All it takes is for the freehold of the block to be sold to the wrong managing company who's idea of making repairs is maybe once in a blue moon, or a couple of 'couldn't care less' landlords who rent their flats out to absolutely anybody as long as they can pay, and things can go down hill very quickly.

My personal opinion is that long term, flats are turning into BTL properties and not owner occupied properties so if this is your ultimate aim then maybe a flat is the better option.