concerns about anticipated works

cluelessoncanvey

Hoping to buy a flat with SOuthend Council as the leasehold. The solicitor has jsut sent me through the search results so far.

It tells em there is a reserve fund of £1301.35 but amticipated works has listed:

INternal/external decorations 2013-2018 "cost is to be likely in the region of £1000.

and the biggee:

Asbestos REmoval works:

"It is noted the agreement will allow a chosen contractor to inspect and survey communal and external areas of our buildings between 2014-2017. If removal works are required we will then notify loeaseholders of the individual cost to their estate. We regularly inspect communal areas for asbestos and no asbestos was found in the communal areas." WHy inspect again? Not going to magically appear now is it? ANyway it carries on in bold "As such it is unlikely that major works will be carried out on the Estate"

Then it goes onto:

POssible works:

"While not programmed at the current time we expect some of all oif the following works to be undertaken in the next 5 years:

1. Roof. Felt Renewal
2. Soil Vent pipe renewal
3. Fascia, Soffit Renewal.

The overall cost of these works are expected to be in the region of £21388.00 on the Estate, As a proportion of the lease agreement this would equate to £1646.88 for the Lessee"

Then onto a historic figure and therefore not binding and no current survey has been done so more coudl be required.

Then have a breakdown of Costs for the year as £762.30 inc £245 reserve fund contribution. The EA had told me it was £520 pa!

Then a copy of the asbestos management survey from 2011 where none was found present.

Then the leasehold property enquiries has

within the next two years are there any section 20 works to the property above the value of £250? which has completed but unpaid, due and anticipated all ticked

ANd now the biggee that has me worried (from a doc dated 2011 to do with disability and equality improvements):

"Estimates for the proposed works" which has two quotes one of £474.834.00and the other £546310.94

External & Internal redecoration including associated repairs borough wide 2013-18 estimate of

£1432674.00

I assume the earlier mentioned amount of £1000 is my flats share of this huge amount?


ANother estimate for asbestos removal 2014-2017 with qoutes of 309K each (but i assume there isnt any from previous results)

ALl these quotes but no paperwork saying the work has been done and final amount. With the large numbers involved hopefully you can see why I wanted some advice on how much this is all going to cost me and how much the seller is going to be liable for.

Doozergirl

The big numbers are irrelevant aren't they? I can't read your formatting very well, but the way I read them, for some reason they are including the estimate for decorating their entire portfolio.

If it doesn't affect your property, you're not liable for anyone elses. The number you concentrate on are the ones relating to your property.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Effectively the council are advising that they may carry out the works listed. If they do, you'll be liable for paying your share. No one can possibly tell you what your share will be at this stage as it would appear that the tendering process has not yet taken place.

Buying a council leasehold property is always a risk - an estimate is only that an the costs can increase (or decrease). I have known leaseholders to be issued invoices for £20k each.

Personally, I would never buy a leasehold property with the council as Freeholder.

cluelessoncanvey

thanks.having regone through the reams of paperwork, seems the interior/exterior decoration bill is in. £673 bit less than the estimate now starting to think they may be extravagant like the surveyor ones.

My solicitor has already questioned them, like twinkletoes said from my understanding you have to pay your share,and it can be an enormous bill. Which is why those estimates worry me, the reserve pot is now going to be down to around £600 having paid for the interior/exterior decorations which is not much when you consider all those plans I have listed above. Would like to think they'd space them out to make them affordable from the reserve, does anyone know when it says 2013-2018 how that works. Is it just luck when they do it, as woudl be my guess. From what I understand councils dont care about whether the leaseholders can afford it, and often pay for expensive contractors so they can cream money off for themselves. <Cynical mode off>

Lioness_Twinkletoes

cluelessoncanvey wrote: »

From what I understand councils dont care about whether the leaseholders can afford it, and often pay for expensive contractors so they can cream money off for themselves. <Cynical mode off>

That last bit is inaccurate. All work that will cost more than £250 carried out by the Freeholder has to be subject to Section 20 consultation. This means that they have to send a Notice of Intention, Notice of Estimate and Notification of Costs. The tendering process is completely transparent and leaseholders can nominate a contractor. If a Freeholder doesn't choose the lowest tender they have to send another notice to the leaseholders advising why.

Of course, all councils were prefer that leaseholders are comfortable with the works and costs, but ultimately their responsibility is to maintain the block. If the block is mixed tenure (tenants and leaseholders) then they may be driven by Government led Decent Homes and therefore have no choice as to when they do the works. Further, some of the works are inevitably going to be responsive.

In short, if you are going to be so tight for money that you think a bill over, say £1,000 is going to be a problem and the Council don't offer repayment packages (they don't have if the lease states payment within 14 days of receipt of invoice) then don't buy a leasehold property.

AlexMac

This sounds reasonable, subject to you getting it for a decent price I own (the leases of) two ex council flats as BTLs and the local authority has been a decent, fair freeholder. The costs you describe are consistent with those I've incurred, and as you say, you'll only be charged your share, which will include a bit on top of the contarctors' costs for admin and contarct management.

Assuming you are buying a low rise property of traditional construction (like my 3-4 storey blocks with brick walls, tile roofs with no lifts) the long-term costs will only be a little more than those associated with any leasehold flat's maintenence service charges. I'd worry if it was a tower block, or with lifts, or with flat roofs, or uncoventional system-built construction as the repair or even scaffolding costs on some of these could be extreme.

We've paid from £450-900 annually each unit for service charges and insurance, and that doesn't include any sinking fund contribution so again, yours semms a better deal. Major repairs or external decs have been charged as one-offs; the biggest was £4,500 for new plastic windows all round; again, a fair price, and for resident owners, my London Council was prepared to spread payments over 1-2 years to soften the hit...

I'd say that while your vendor should settle all outstanding routine or one-off bills up to the date of exchange or purchase, any future repairs or improvements are down to you- but if there is a big one coming you could try to negotiate the price down a bit; the vendor may agree to save the sale, but if not, be prepared to compromise, cave in (or walk away from the sale).

Good luck- we've enjoyed both good rents and capital gains on our two little BTLs so I don't mind the fact that we've just been warned to expect bills of several grant in the next year; even if you owned a freehold, you'd have to pay to re-dec, re-roof, etc unless you're an ace DIY-er