How many of you are positive about flat living in retirement?

Leblanc_2

I ask because I get quite frustrated with flat living.

We moved into a flat about 7 years ago, but I have never really settled in and relaxed. Largely due to my antipathy it does not feel like our forever home despite all the improvements we have undertaken.

There are positives like security, lock up and leave, and easy to run and heat etc. However, the positives have been marred by BTL tenants. They are not stake holders so take no interest in the care and appearance of common areas. Two students will rent a flat then illegally but secretly move their friends in. There is therefore generally more noise and higher decibel music etc.

I could go on about all the negatives.

My wife is much more tolerant than me, and loves city centre flat living. I get really disenchanted and look for alternatives, which can lead to unnecessary friction, because of the obvious costs of moving and the general upheaval once again.

I don't like 55+ residences for a number of reasons.

whodathunkit

Couldn't you consider flat conversions rather than a flat in a block? This can avoid the problem of communal areas and provide a more homely environment.

moneyistooshorttomention

You could check out with the Land Registry who owns the flat with illicit extra tenants in and tell the landlord owner and that will help with that problem anyway.

The lock-up and leave and easy to run bits are a blessing compared to doing what I have (ie buying a 1970s house, which has meant/is meaning all sorts of renovation work necessary just to make the place usable). There are advantages in having a more modern place.

I had no option but to buy a fixer-upper in order to be able to afford a detached house. I had no option but to move and get a detached house, because I will never regard a house as a Home unless its detached/garden/decent area (ie because that's the type of house my parents have had for donkeys years).

Hmmm...or do you have a blueprint in your head and a house/flat/whatever won't fit the bill of being able to be regarded as a Home, for instance because your "A Home is......." doesn't include a flat. If that's the case, then maybe you could move to a house, but still in a location that will give your wife her city centre living that is obviously part of her "A Home Is...." blueprint.

I think many of us have this "A Home Is blueprint" in our head and won't regard anything else as A Home. The thing is to check out your and your wife's respective Home Blueprints. I gave up on my last house and knew I had to sell it when I realised that, no matter what I did to it, it wouldn't be right because I have that "A Home is detached/garden/decent area blueprint" in my head and my last house was terrace/back yard/average-ish area and therefore would only ever fit my "A Starter House is a terrace etc etc blueprint" and I'm now too old to still regard it as fair to be in a Starter House. It proved impossible to have my Retirement Lifestyle in a Starter House, because my Retirement Lifestyle blueprint includes doing the garden/sitting out in the garden in privacy.

So ask yourself and your wife what your Lifestyle Blueprint is that you have in your head, ie "what lifestyle do we intend to lead?" and see if that flat is hindering you having your desired lifestyle/helpful to lifestyle/neutral to lifestyle iyswim.

Leblanc_2

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

You could check out with the Land Registry who owns the flat with illicit extra tenants in and tell the landlord owner and that will help with that problem anyway.

The lock-up and leave and easy to run bits are a blessing compared to doing what I have (ie buying a 1970s house, which has meant/is meaning all sorts of renovation work necessary just to make the place usable). There are advantages in having a more modern place.

I had no option but to buy a fixer-upper in order to be able to afford a detached house. I had no option but to move and get a detached house, because I will never regard a house as a Home unless its detached/garden/decent area (ie because that's the type of house my parents have had for donkeys years).

Hmmm...or do you have a blueprint in your head and a house/flat/whatever won't fit the bill of being able to be regarded as a Home, for instance because your "A Home is......." doesn't include a flat. If that's the case, then maybe you could move to a house, but still in a location that will give your wife her city centre living that is obviously part of her "A Home Is...." blueprint.

I think many of us have this "A Home Is blueprint" in our head and won't regard anything else as A Home. The thing is to check out your and your wife's respective Home Blueprints. I gave up on my last house and knew I had to sell it when I realised that, no matter what I did to it, it wouldn't be right because I have that "A Home is detached/garden/decent area blueprint" in my head and my last house was terrace/back yard/average-ish area and therefore would only ever fit my "A Starter House is a terrace etc etc blueprint" and I'm now too old to still regard it as fair to be in a Starter House. It proved impossible to have my Retirement Lifestyle in a Starter House, because my Retirement Lifestyle blueprint includes doing the garden/sitting out in the garden in privacy.

So ask yourself and your wife what your Lifestyle Blueprint is that you have in your head, ie "what lifestyle do we intend to lead?" and see if that flat is hindering you having your desired lifestyle/helpful to lifestyle/neutral to lifestyle iyswim.

Thank you for your thought provoking and interesting taxonomy comments. You are probably correct in the 'Lifestyle Blueprint' classification. The problem is that my wife and I are probably carrying 'different blueprints' in our respective heads.

Housing is so expensive in our area, that as is the same for your situation, we would also have to go for a 'fixer upper' but even then it would decimate our savings.

Apart from the upgrading and maintenance requirements that you touch on, there is also the problem of heat retention. City centre houses in our area are quite ancient and cannot be thermally upgraded without a prohibitively expensive overhaul. They are the old style lath and plaster with solid stone outer walls.

The BTL brigade have made it difficult to enjoy a quiet city centre life due to disrespectful non stakeholders. We are also experiencing a new and growing problem of flats being bought over by letting agents diversifying into higher yield serviced apartments. This exposes us to transient occupiers who have absolutely no stake or interest in the property, and a regular disruption from noisy eastern european cleaners.

We find letting agents and landlords totally disinterested in the actions of their tenants. They just want to take the money and run. Even the local authority who are supposed to deal with unlicensed multiple occupancy flats behave quite apathetically.
It is an ongoing battle with tenants, letting agents, factor and even the local authority. I really envy the Home Owners Associations they have in the USA, which appear to have teeth.

We therefore tend to go round in circles trying to find an almost impossible solution to our disparate needs. At our stage in life we don't want to move to the suburbs and be part of a younger family community with considerably less facilities and services.
We don't want to move to a town/city where housing is cheaper but be isolated from our small circle of family and friends.
Detached houses in our city centre (even fixer uppers) are virtually outwith our reach.
Flats for the over 55s are a bit institutionalised with pull cords, central lounges, and wardens etc! Not really our scene! They also tend to rip you off with high service charges over which you have limited control.

Like you I feel that at this stage in our lives and having worked hard to achieve peace, comfort and enjoyment we are rather unhappy that we seem unable to find it.

The baby boomers are constantly asked to downsize and move into smaller flatted property in order to free up resources for families. However, when they do so there is not really a suitable environment provided for them.

In addition it is leading to stress and subsequent friction between us. Probably because my tolerance level is considerably lower than that of my wife.

I was curious if others in the same situation as ourselves had managed to find a satisfactory solution, because thus far and with considerable thought, we have been unable to do so.

At the very least your attempt at taxonomy has provided a framework for discussion. Thanks

Leblanc_2

whodathunkit wrote: »

Couldn't you consider flat conversions rather than a flat in a block? This can avoid the problem of communal areas and provide a more homely environment.

Thanks for your reply.

We have thought of this and it is a possibility, but we find that flat conversions ie older upper and lower flats in our area tend to be considerably less soundproofed than newer ones. It would be almost impossibly expensive to soundproof and thermally upgrade them.

These type of flats are also expensive to buy in the first instance, without all the added works.

Leblanc_2

I am surprised there have been no comments concerning actual flat living. Am I in a real minority as a flat dweller?

What about all you retirees in Torquay etc?

carefullycautious

We moved from a house to a GF flat in a block of 4. Loved the flat and the location but due to horrendous anti social behaviour of upstairs occupant and dreadful sound proofing we had to move from 2 bed to 1 bed bungalow.

We realised along with our good neighbours that we would only ever be ok if we had good neighbours; something we could not guarantee and at our ages we wished for a peaceful life.

Our town along with many others have seen a lot of new build flats start to become the 'slums of the future' due to the transient nature of it occupants brought about by BTL landlords. As you say the tenants have no interest in keeping areas clean and tidy and due to the high level of rents probably do not have the money to do anything but the basics.

I would love to live in a new, warm, lock up and go flat with good neighbours, but the reality is somewhat different and the thought of going through sleep deprivation for the amount of years we did makes my blood run cold.

Sorry to sound so negative

yangptangkipperbang

Leblanc wrote: »

I don't like 55+ residences for a number of reasons.

What reasons ?

I moved into a 50 + retirement flat/apartment a year ago. I am wondering why I didn't do it sooner.
The place is very well designed. Thermal and noise insulation is superb. The communal spaces are fine and there is a great (almost family) atmosphere. If you wish to join in the social scene you can - if you don't, you are still treated the same as everyone else.
I know 12 months in advance what my monthly financial outgoings will be.

Before, I had the hassle of keeping a 3 bed house, garden and garage running - now all I have to worry about is my apartment. The gardens are looked after, someone puts the bins out, if the kids/friends want to come and stay there is a guest suite - I don't even have to wash the bedding, when they leave !

Twisted_Cherry

My dad lives in a 55+ housing scheme and has a ground floor flat. He's been there just over a year, he moved from a bungalow sheltered housing scheme.

The flat itself is ok, well it is now we replaced the kitchen part paid for by the housing association and us and finally decorated etc. He likes the flat and some of the other residents are friendly enough.

BUT there are some people on the estate who are nosy busy bodies who will report you for the slightest thing or go our of their way to cause trouble for the sake of it! A bunch of old people who love their little cliques! It's got so bad that they have recently had to formally close the Residents Association as no one wanted to volunteer because of certain residents on it!

There are some issues with the heating, it's old E7 and not so reliable. There are plans to replace the windows this year which are desperately needed and the guttering. The water pressure is really poor as well. For the amount of rent my dad has to pay, the housing should be more organised about repairs etc.

Personally if I'd had my way I wouldn't have let my dad move there and would have preferred him to wait for something better.

downshifter98

This is an interesting subject as I'm approaching 50 and wife and I are beginning to wonder where we want to live as we get older - currently we have a modest family house with adult kids still at home but we both feel that some kind of downsizing would be nice one day and somewhere simple would enable us to do more travelling. A flat would seem ideal but the comments so far make me realise that there are risks attached - perhaps we should just sell up (eventually) and travel!

pollypenny

We bought a flat when we wet first married. Great until someone with no carpets and a quarrelsome drunk husband moved in above us.

Although we like the lock up and leave idea and a no maintenance outdoor space, we wouldn't like to risk anything other than detached.

We have a large bungalow, within walking distance of everything we might need, so I guess we'll stay put.