Advice when buying a flat needed

leestafford

Onetwothreefour

zarf2007

leestafford wrote: »

I was discussing, with a solicitor, yesterday about buying a specific flat. He would be my solicitor if I buy it.

It sounded like he was talking me out of it. Simply because he was mentioning things like the management company could put the service charge up or demand a sky high lump sum for a major repair.

Rather than pushing the sale through so he could get the business.

Is he being realistic or extreme?

Or is there a way of finding out if there is any planned expensive upgrades to the complex?

Thanks in advance.

The things you should look for when buying a flat are:

1) is there a long lease (ie 100 Years+), if not then in the future it could cost you a bit to extend, if its 70 or less, avoid unless you can get the current owner to extend and knock the cost off the price during the sale process.

2) Does it have a sinking fund.....some people think its great to have no monthly service charge, until there is a problem with the roof and they are hit with a bill for £10K+ for their share.......if the block is run properly then a monthly service charge will have built a decent size fund to cover this. No sinking fund = avoid, unless you are cash rich.

3) Preferably buy somewhere which gives you an option to own a share of the freehold. These tend to be better maintained as the leaseholders own a share in a LTD company that owns the freehold and can choose who they want to maintain the block. This also has the added benefit of allowing you to extend your lease at minimal cost.

4) Avoid buying in a block where most properties are owned by the council. They will pay top dollar for a shoddy job (backhanders all round) for major works and you will get stung for a massive bill to fund it. Meanwhile mr benefits who lives next door gets to laugh at you through his weed smoke filled window drinking a cocktail....


if you follow this advice you should be ok.

eddddy

leestafford wrote: »

...
It sounded like he was talking me out of it. Simply because he was mentioning things like the management company could put the service charge up or demand a sky high lump sum for a major repair.

Rather than pushing the sale through so he could get the business.
...

Are you sure he was trying to talk you out of it?

It sounds like he was just explaining the considerations associated with purchasing a leasehold, as opposed to a freehold.

And perhaps justifying his higher fee for a leasehold purchase than a freehold purchase, because of some of the extra checks involved.

LJS2014

In my experience management companies will come to you for funds in addition to your service charge for anything they deem as "unplanned". The management company on my flat recently changed and they contacted me asking for additional funds to upgrade an electronic gate. For any works like this they should provide you with evidence that they have obtained more than one quote.

In my situation I declined to pay the additional charge until they could provide a copy of the accounts, (we had not been provided with this since purchasing the flat over 2 years ago.) This took a couple of months but the accounts have been provided now and I will pay the additional charge.

My advice to you - always keep a contingency fund because you will on occasions receive those "unplanned" requests for money.