Buying a flat in a tower block

ThePants999

One person's experience is hardly a definitive guide, but FWIW, my first home was a flat on the tenth floor of a 12-storey council block.
- We had absolutely no problems getting a mortgage from a high street lender (Abbey, as it was at the time). This was 2005, however, things may have changed.
- It was an absolutely fantastic flat for the price, heavily discounted compared to having the same flat in a different building merely by virtue of being ex-council and in a tower block. We loved it.
- We had no trouble selling it when the time came to move on. Hell, we sold it in a day with a text ad on Gumtree, never mind agents, Rightmove etc! (By this I mean that our eventual buyers viewed it a day after we put up the ad - I can't remember exactly when they made the offer.)
- However, just after we moved out, all the leaseholders got stuck with a £12K bill for balcony replacement work from the council. It was all completely unnecessary, vehemently disputed, but deaf ears. I completely agree with Owain above - council employees aren't spending their own money and don't show anything like the financial prudence that a private sector freeholder would.

ruelle

would all your comments about maintenance apply to any ex-local authority flat? i've seen a few in low rise blocks that i like the look of. i don't mind living in an ex-council building generally as i think they're better built than flimsy new builds and more spacious. but would you generally steer clear of ex-council because of the threat of being hit with a huge maintenance bill?

hannhol

with any property where the council is the freeholder you will run the risk that bills will be unexpected.

we owned a ground floor split level flat in a small block managed by a housing association. the service charge was around £40 a month, and in our first year we had an overspend of £1200 which we had to pay on top. After we sold (for reasons unrelated) we later found out that the new owners got a bill of approx. £3k the following financial year for a major works project. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's a lot of money if you don't have it. It's also difficult to budget/save for it as you just don't know how much or when it will be.

You can in theory decide not to replace your roof, or do the garden or whatever your property needs but we had no choice to pay those bills which seemed to be for projects decided on in a completely random fashion.

carefullycautious

If you buy into a council owned block there will be no sinking fund and you will have to pay your share of the eventual cost. friends of ours live in a block of 4 so ground and first floor.


They have lived there for many years without ever having to pay anything, however recently the roof and guttering had to be maintained so a £3,000 pound bill had to be found.


Older post war buildings are coming to the end of their shelf life and now need major works so the people who lived there for many years and never had to pay towards any costs were lucky.


You may be better going into a privately owned block where there is a sinking fund and the management have a good reputation

StumpyPumpy

hannhol wrote: »

with any property where the council is the freeholder you will run the risk that bills will be unexpected.

Just wanted to make the point that the freehold of the blocks I was talking about is, and always has been, in private hands and there never has been a sinking fund. They were built in the 60's and now they need the sidings replaced plus other structural work. Last muted bill per flat was £80k :eek: but the word on the street is that it has gone up substantially since then :eek::eek:

SP

ruelle

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

Just wanted to make the point that the freehold of the blocks I was talking about is, and always has been, in private hands and there never has been a sinking fund. They were built in the 60's and now they need the sidings replaced plus other structural work. Last muted bill per flat was £80k :eek: but the word on the street is that it has gone up substantially since then :eek::eek:

SP

crickey! :eek:

Owain_Moneysaver

ruelle wrote: »

would all your comments about maintenance apply to any ex-local authority flat? i've seen a few in low rise blocks that i like the look of. i don't mind living in an ex-council building generally as i think they're better built than flimsy new builds and more spacious. but would you generally steer clear of ex-council because of the threat of being hit with a huge maintenance bill?

Small or low-rise blocks are usually less of an issue than tower blocks. Any work on a tower block is expensive because of the heights involved and the requirements for scaffolding the whole building. Tower blocks usually have major communal installations such as lifts, heating and hot water, waste chutes, all of which are expensive to repair or replace.

In small blocks you will usually not have a lift; each flat will have its own heating system; and small exterior repairs can be done by access tower or cherry picker. Also smaller blocks are often more traditionally built so defects will be localised and can be repaired easily, whereas tower blocks will be system built and any defect will be present throughout the building and need a major scheme of work.

[Deleted User]

You may be able to settle some of your fears if your local authority puts information online.

On mine I can see their scheduled works up til September (when the new annual list will go up) and what the payment options are, which helps me to plan my finances. I can also see they've planned to meet their version of the 'decent homes standard' by 2017 - so if my flat didn't already have double-glazing or a secure entry system, or was suitable for cavity wall insulation, I'd be bracing myself for those.

Other than that, when you are thinking about making an offer, you can only count the number of things that might need replacement or maintainance, make a guestimate (and then double it for the 'council factor').

If you do make an offer, your solicitor should get a pack of information from the council which would hopefully outline their plans and likely cost.

Good luck, I bought ex-council, it cost more in service charge and major works, but the purchase price difference allowed me to stay closer to where I wanted to live.