council sinking fund

moremore

leegarlick wrote: »

i havent agreed to buy the property yet so not sure what they have sent me is the actuall lease but it does give a breakdown of were my payments to them would go.I agree with the majority of them i am quite happy to pay for repairs or improvments but only if i am fairly charged,when i rang and asked about the advance payment fund they said it was incase the roof got damaged or incase they decide to change all the windows?
Also if i have been renting from them for 10 years i presume some of my rent has been getting put into this pot yet no work in 10 years has been done, so the pot should be pretty big as there are 6 flats in the block.Also now they have broken down the service charge i have been paying for 10 years i can see that i have been paying for things that havent been done(£63 a year for gardening, the garden hasnt been touched by the council for at least five years) is there anything i can do about this?

This is a part of a standard RTB lease 2012
[FONT=&quot]Sub-Clause (g)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Council has the power to create a reserve fund so that, for example, they can set aside money for periodic re-decoration of the outside of the building. On the sale of your property you will not be entitled to any part of the reserve fund so that the purchaser will have the benefit of whatever you have paid on account towards future expenditure.[/FONT]
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MisterBaxter

moremore wrote: »

This is a part of a standard RTB lease 2012
[FONT=&quot]Sub-Clause (g)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Council has the power to create a reserve fund so that, for example, they can set aside money for periodic re-decoration of the outside of the building. On the sale of your property you will not be entitled to any part of the reserve fund so that the purchaser will have the benefit of whatever you have paid on account towards future expenditure.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

Assuming the Landlord uses that form of lease. I can think of at least one major West Midlands Council that doesn't, they are doing some major improvement works this year and can't recover any of the costs from their leasehold tenants. They have no sinking fund and their lease doesn't allow them to recover any costs other than repairs and maintenance (I have been working with their property team on some cost modelling and this issue came up as it dents their capital programme). They will be meeting the costs for these works from their housing capital budgets. You are right though with regards to not getting anything back on moving as that is the primary purpose of a sinking fund, when selling on a buyers solicitor will want to know all about any planned works and will be more comfortable knowing that there is a retained fund to cover and major items of expenditure.

It really does come down to reading and understanding the particular lease being presented. Far too often leaseholders don't get proper advice during the conveyancing process, if the OP does decide to buy they need to make sure they know exactly what the score is.