I want to purchase a flat on the 15floor -

Raffa008

I want to purchase my flat on the 15 th floor - could anyone recommend a lender, it is a right to buy I have lived there since 97, some of the high street banks are reluctant to lend

Guest101

It all depends on your circumstances, a broker will help u. But do u have a 5-10% deposit?

buglawton

A very similar question was discussed here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1142747

I read a newspaper article a few weeks ago along the lines of "6 secret mortgage rules they don't tell you when you apply", it listed things like above 6th floor, in same building as a business, etc as being absolute no-nos with most lenders, only they don't tell you any of this upfront so will waste your time & effort for you when you apply. Can't find a link to that article now, might be Daily Mail or Times.

Some lenders do publish rules - hooray!
http://www.thenottingham.com/intermediaries/mortgages/
(e.g. no above 4th floor unless there's a lift)

Also there was a recent Radio 4 Moneybox item about completely creditworthy people people being refused a low LTV mortgage simply due to large lenders using a computer to decide against cast iron (and later proven incorrect) rules. Moneybox recommended you go to smaller lenders eg some of the regional building societies as they have real humans to check the real situation.

ethank

It is VERY difficult to obtain a mortgage for a property higher than 5th storey in tower blocks.

Personally, I would never purchase in a local authority tower block. You are opening yourself up to huge service charge (they will divide all of the costs equally between all of the flats) as well regular maintenance recharges - If your lift needs replacing - you will have to pay your share! Do you know how much a lift costs?!!!!

buglawton

I have seen how some ex council blocks got a refurb near Euston station in London, now even having a concierge. Anyone who bought one of these flats, even on the 15th floor, would be very much quids in now.

If you had a choice of freeholder, and all other things were equal (granted, they may not be...) then a council will be the fairer and cheaper one on fees.

So we're all generalizing here, as the situation for some blocks of flats in totally in-demand locations (London or adjacent to London commuter rail stations) may be very different from average locations.

Without a lot more detail it is easy to see that a 15th floor mortgage could be a tough call.

kingstreet

Percentage of flats in public/private ownership.
Lift.
Flat floor/total number of floors.
Method of construction.
Location.
Surveyor opinion on future saleability.

These all go into determining if a lender will accept the property as suitable security. A whole market broker is your best bet for establishing the lenders open to you.

Watch out for future large-scale maintenance planned expenditure, such as refurb, or lift replacement.

scottishblondie

buglawton wrote: »

I have seen how some ex council blocks got a refurb near Euston station in London, now even having a concierge. Anyone who bought one of these flats, even on the 15th floor, would be very much quids in now.

If you had a choice of freeholder, and all other things were equal (granted, they may not be...) then a council will be the fairer and cheaper one on fees.

I bet all the private owners paid through the nose for the refurb, so I doubt many of them are "quids in"! I also would not say that a council will be fairer or cheaper on fees, based on personal experience. My boyfriend purchased an ex local authority flat 3.5 years ago in a 7 storey building where more than 50% of the flats are still owned by the LA. We are in Scotland, so the LA are the factors of the building rather than the freeholder.

Just before he bought the flat, the roof on the block was replaced at a cost per flat of £18k. The lift was replaced 2 years ago at a cost of £6k per flat (although a grant was available to lower the cost to just under £3k each) and now they have decided to redecorate the common areas at a cost of nearly £4k per flat.

Because the LA has an "agreement" with a building firm who were split off from the council a few years ago to be a profit making business, no quotes are obtained and nothing is put out to tender. We are not even being provided with a breakdown of the works (and we did ask, repeatedly). We simply have to pay whatever this company says it costs.

If anyone is thinking of buying an ex-LA block, especially one where the LA still has the majority vote, they need to be fully prepared for these sorts of huge bills to arise. In particular I would put in some legwork to find out how the LA's procurement process works!

Slinky

Can you ask any of your neighbours who they have a mortgage with?

st999

My opinion, unasked for but getting it anyway.

Completely and utterly bonkers to even consider it.

I know someone who bought a council flat in a four in a block

Then the council decided the roof needed replaced.
Guess who paid for that and it wasn't any of the 2 tenants on the first floor?

Raffa008

Thanks for the comments and appreciate, the flat is in Central London would not want to sell as the rent would be secure, building refurbed, has lift and a concierge. Actually great investment property. 10 mins from trafalgar

buglawton

Which you could have said in the opening post, it would have helped a lot with the type of advice people give.

International investors seem to have no problem getting loans from their own countries' banks for high rise Central london property. But you might do best with a smaller UK lender who understands the context.

As it's right to buy, the LTV will be low and would help insure against any LA freeholder issues.