Buying a flat. Leaseholder wants £2500 to fix roof. Should I pull out?

Edtough

Hi all,

I'm in the process of buying a flat. During my solicitor's enquiries it has come to light that the landlord/leaseholder anticipates roof repairs etc to the building at a cost of £10k split between the 4 flats, within the next 2 years.

Apparently this £2500 must be forked out as part of the sale.

My question is, since I wasn't aware of this when I made my offer, would it be reasonable of me to drop my offer by £2500 because of this? Would you expect this to be something the seller should take care of?

eddddy

Yes - it would be reasonable to reduce your offer...

...or perhaps keep the price the same but arrange a retention of, say, £3k to be used to cover the repair costs.


You need to check exactly were the process is up to. Is £10k a fixed and accepted quote from a contractor, or is it an early estimate by the management co?

(Estimates can increase hugely. And a quote may allow for increases in cost, if additional problems are found.)


Edit to add...

And are you happy to live with the inconvenience of contractors putting on a new roof? (Some people might expect an additional reduction in price to compensate for the inconvenience.)

societys_child

Although the vendor should have all his ducks in a row when trying to sell, the new roof would be of benefit to you, the seller gains nothing from it.

If a survey values the property with the roof as it is, it could be argued that it's worth more after the roof repairs.

Maybe they'll negotiate?

hazyjo

Obviously your solicitor will clarify this amount with the freeholder/management company. I wonder if you might have it capped at that amount - prob not, as not sure who would pay if it went over that. I have always found bills like that to be way higher than first anticipated.


If it's an ex-LA property, tread carefully. They're renowned for dropping bills through your letterbox...


Jx

Edtough

Great advice. Thanks all.

I'll get confirmation of things with my solicitor; the retention idea sounds a good one.

And yes, sorry, I meant freeholder.

[Deleted User]

I was in the opposite boat, i was selling and had a letter to say a new door entry system was due to be put in in two years at a cost of £1500! They buyers first agreed to half the costs, then they changed their mind, then they changed it back again, then the council who owned the lease decided not to bother with the new door after all and the buyers still kept their offer at £750 below the original offer. I told them no chance and they begrudgingly accepted the cooker as a gesture of goodwill if they kept to their original offer.

I drove past 12 months later and there was a shiny new door! Oops! Never found out if they paid towards it.

Edtough

Hah, it's a minefield!

Oh to be buying freehold.

Hoploz

Seems a bit odd that you're being asked for this £2500 as part of the sale, if the work is not going to happen till about two years time. How far down the line has this work got? Have they got quotes? Are the quotes definite, or are they likely to change - anything could happen in that space of time, a contractor could go bust or change the price, or decide different work needs dng as it has deteriorated more.

Usually you have a sinking fund which is paid into by the leaseholders as part of the service charge, for future major works. If you sell you are supposed to be entitled to a refund of what you've paid in and has not been used. Perhaps this is what has happened? You are being asked to put in the money to replace the amount they are taking out? if this is the case you will be paying in to top this up for the next two years until the work is done, so maybe the actual quote is for a lot more and you are assuming 10k covers the full amount.

The seller will be long gone by then and will have no benefit whatsoever, so I fail to see why they should contribute. It is part of the costs of property ownership.

You need to ask your solicitor to get to the bottom of this. They will have to look through the info the freeholder has given them carefully to see if it's all there, or whether they need to ask further more detailed questions.

Edtough

Yep, the matter has arisen as a result of the freeholder being asked to complete an enquiry list. My solicitor has gone back for clarification along the lines of what you've said above.

As far as I'm aware, there was no sinking fund which the seller paid into.

moneyistooshorttomention

It seems fair enough to me that it should be the vendor that pays (one way or another) for the share of roof cost.

No-one expects to move in somewhere and have to pay out pretty promptly (ie within, say, the first 5 years) for a major communal expense that the vendor knew/should have known about.

One buys a new home expecting that the only renovation/maintenance costs within first few years will be one's own.

My offer on such a place would certainly be correspondingly reduced - in order to ensure that the vendor covered their own bill and didnt pass it on to me.

csgohan4

Bare in mind this won't be the first and last time you will be contributing as a leaseholder.