Pro's and con's of ex-council flat

kwmlondon

Hi. I'm thinking of trading up to a bigger place, and there are plenty of ex-local authority properties that would offer me way more space than I've got at the moment in my purpose-built apartment. I know that a former council flat isn't as desirable as a lovely victorian conversion, but what are the big things to consider when looking at buying an ex council flat? How bad are the service charges? Can you really get hit with thousands for rennovations and repairs without warning? Since I live in London, lots of council blocks are now mainly private properites and not that rough, but what are people's experiences?

abankerbutnotafatcat

The service charges will vary with the Local Authority. I bought a property where Wandsworth is the freeholder, Wandsworth as in the lowest council tax in the country (I think) and they have certainly not given me any cause for concern in the 15 years they've been my freeholder.
Historic service charges/maintenance bills for major works may be made available to you by the vendor upon request and form part of the conveyancing process.

I would advise you to prioritise location and if it's in a good location (as in proximity to public transport and shopping and leisure amenities) then do the old front door test to see roughly what percentage are privately owned or alternatively if you trust the agent/vendor they may know.

princeofpounds

Pros are often space; many council flats were built during a period where minimum standards were enforced that don't apply to most private properties.

Negatives are the 'quality' of the neighbourhood and the people in it. This varies a lot. Some places are sinks, others have gone all private and are quite gentrified.

Improvement works charges can be a real issue. The council retains a freehold and will decide that it needs to redo the windows and roof. The contract gets passed to a contracting company who overcharge the council (a brown paper envelope is probably heading in the other direction). The burden of the charges fall on the private owners but not the council tenants.

BitterAndTwisted

My mother bought an ex-Local Authority flat on a large development. The charges imposed on her as a leaseholder for any additional works other than repairs bore absolutely no resemblance to a fair percentage of what was carried out, so she inferred that they were disproportionate and was fighting them tooth-and-nail when she died. The executors paid everything off.

People who have bought such properties have found themselves faced with bills of tens of thousands, and you only ever know about the LA's plans for a five-year period when pourchasing. After that, it's anyone's guess. LA's policy of "decent homes" and the consequent costs of improvements might have been put on the back-burner for a while because of the current economic climate but I don't think they will have gone away forever.

The proportion of leaseholders to tenants, either LA or private can make a huge difference to how decent somewhere is to live. Personally, I'd only ever buy a flat in an LA owned conversion not a purpose-built block or development. Nothing can ensure you don't get bad neighbours even when you own and live next door to other owners but the chances of having problems in a large development increases exponentially when you throw renters of either sort into the mix. As unpalatable as it sounds those neighbours being LA tenants just increases the risk.

jayss

Cons if the council is the leaseholder you can be very restricted who can carry out repairs, can get massive bills for the councils 'project management' of said repair even if you were the one who had to spend days on the phone sorting things out. Not that Im bitter about a particular event that occurred

abankerbutnotafatcat

jayss wrote: »

Cons if the council is the leaseholder you can be very restricted who can carry out repairs, can get massive bills for the councils 'project management' of said repair even if you were the one who had to spend days on the phone sorting things out. Not that Im bitter about a particular event that occurred

Sorry to hear about your bad experience - why not name and shame the LA?

Firstly, I presume we're talking about external repairs covered by the council's buildings insurance as internal things are much the same as if you had a freehold property.

I think this may depend on who your LA freeholder is and possibly on the nature/scale of the repair required. My only experience was an overflowing gutter that caused internal water damage in one of my rooms. The council did the external repair (presumably the cost went into the service charge for all, it was a communal gutter for the flats above mine) and asked me to obtain three quotes for the internal re-decorating which they promptly paid me up front to the value of the middle quote. It took a few phone calls initially regarding the gutter but no more than I would expect with a private landlord.

abankerbutnotafatcat

The only service charge/major repairs thing that has ever irked me was having to pay my percentage of the installation of the entryphone system even though my property is ground floor with its own street entrance so doesn't have one. But that's what I signed up for and I know someone in a private flat who is having to pay for balconies to be added to flats in his block even though he's on the ground floor and that doesn't come cheap!!!!

kwmlondon

Cheers for all this, it's good to know.

I was thinking of Bermondsey as it's close to the Jubliee Line, I've lived SE London since I moved here in 1996 and really like it, and there's quite a lot of okay seeming LA property.

abankerbutnotafatcat

kwmlondon wrote: »

Cheers for all this, it's good to know.

I was thinking of Bermondsey as it's close to the Jubliee Line, I've lived SE London since I moved here in 1996 and really like it, and there's quite a lot of okay seeming LA property.

So that's Southwark I think (I used to leave in nearby Surrey Quays and that was Southwark). Maybe some people here will have some experience of Southwark as their freeholder/LL.

You probably know Bermondsey better than I do but I know that it has some quite challenging pockets but it's certainly a very central location and public transport has improved.

cattie

Years ago bought a leasehold property that had Southwark as freeholder. It was a lovely maisonette in a courtyard setting, one of about 18 & built in the 80's. The annual service charges were quite high, but as it was an usual property in a conservation area I was ok with that. However, it was the lump sum payments for periodic maintenance for the exterior that used to get me. Just before I sold I had to fork out almost £3k for the painting of my front door & wooden windows & a few other bits of external painting.

The big drawback with all leasehold properties that have the local authority as the freeholder, is the high cost of repairs & maintenance of common/shared parts & the exterior of the building that can cripple you.

devotee

kwmlondon wrote: »

Cheers for all this, it's good to know.

I was thinking of Bermondsey as it's close to the Jubliee Line, I've lived SE London since I moved here in 1996 and really like it, and there's quite a lot of okay seeming LA property.

I wouldn't. A rough part of London. Even worse being on a council estate.