Sellers hid large maintenance costs

ToriC

Hello,
We're in the process of buying a leasehold flat. Searches have come back however it's just been brought up that there are large maintenance costs for us to pay in the next few months (for repointing, guttering... )

They are delaying giving us the actual cost but looking online they are around £4000 which we just cannot afford. If we back out we will lose about £1000 on costs that we've already put into this...

I'm just looking for some advice really.
Thanks,

stator

Well you only really have two options. Go ahead or pull out.
You can ask the seller to pay the estimated costs, or reduce your offer accordingly, but the seller may say no.
As you haven't exchanged contracts that is no come back against them.

davidmcn

ToriC wrote: »

looking online they are around £4000

At what? £4000 buys a lot of pointing and guttering!

Cakeguts

This is a risk with any leasehold flat. You could be living in a flat for 6 months and then find out that there is going to be some maintenance to pay for in the future. If you don't have spare money to pay for this then you are probably in the process of buying a flat that is actually too expensive for you.

G_M

ToriC wrote: »

Sellers hid large maintenance costs

Searches have come back however it's just been brought up that there are large maintenance costs for us to pay in the next few months (for repointing, guttering... )

They are delaying giving us the actual cost but looking online they are around £4000 which we just cannot afford. If we back out we will lose about £1000 on costs that we've already put into this...

In what way did they hide the maintenance costs?

The seller almost certainly does not know what the costs will be. However your searches should include enquiries of the freeholder or management company, who may (or may not yet) have received builders' quotes for the work.

They are delaying giving us the actual cost but looking online they are around £4000 which we just cannot afford. If we back out we will lose about £1000 on costs that we've already put into this...

I'm bemused as to where 'online' you could find a figure related to work which is specific to this building. And is this mythical figure of £4000 the total cost for the building? or the share atributable to the flat your are buying?

Given that by backing out you'd lose £1000, £4000 (if that's the true cost per flat) is not much more.

moneyistooshorttomention

If you're still interested - just reduce your offer accordingly.

They didn't mention those costs - okay then that makes it okay to reduce an already agreed offer.

glasgowdan

I agree, £4k per flat sounds mad. Have you seen the quotes or is this just google "pointing costs £x"? We renewed all the guttering on our house for £2k, so if it were a flat that'd be divided by 8 or whatever.

always_sunny

Cakeguts wrote: »

This is a risk with any leasehold flat. You could be living in a flat for 6 months and then find out that there is going to be some maintenance to pay for in the future. If you don't have spare money to pay for this then you are probably in the process of buying a flat that is actually too expensive for you.

Isn't that the risk with freehold houses as well or freehold don't need maintenance?
I understand the control is different and I suppose freeholder can hold off doing it, but some maintenance must be done anyway!

moneyistooshorttomention

glasgowdan wrote: »

I agree, £4k per flat sounds mad. Have you seen the quotes or is this just google "pointing costs £x"? We renewed all the guttering on our house for £2k, so if it were a flat that'd be divided by 8 or whatever.

Google can actually be pretty accurate on some things I find.

Googling about a bit of house maintenance for this place - ie "how much does a new kitchen cost (ie medium size one)" produced a consensus of opinion of around £8,000. That would probably be about right - if it wasnt for the fact I'm going to have expensive worksurface (rather than laminate) - so I personally have probably whacked that up to around £11,000.

moneyistooshorttomention

always_sunny wrote: »

Isn't that the risk with freehold houses as well or freehold don't need maintenance?
I understand the control is different and I suppose freeholder can hold off doing it, but some maintenance must be done anyway!

A standard freehold house has its own maintenance costs obviously. But these are under the householders control. For instance - when I bought my last house I knew it needed a new roof at some point (ie Victorian terrace). But I expected to have to pay every penny of that myself (without aid of grant) - so, all else being equal, I'd have swopped that roof immediately. In the event - finances dictated I had to wait and wait some more etc etc. In the event - the roof "went" over 10 years after buying the house. At that point - I had to do it - even though I still couldnt afford it.

But that's the point - I managed to put it off for over 10 years - because I was the one "in charge" of that. So - it wasnt an immediate expense. Also I was trying not to have to cover the cost on my own. I might have got married (ie only had to pay half the cost), I might have become unemployed (ie not had to pay any of the cost).

knightstyle

We had similar when buying a flat from the estate of a deceased man.
Our searches turned up a demand for £7k which was due a month after the proposed purchase date so we said the sellers pay this before we went ahead, in the end they agreed to pay £5k of it and we paid £2k.
The money was for lift upgrade and garage roof repairs, most was for te lift but our flat was ground floor and we never used the lift, the lease said we were jointly liable for all maintenance including the lift.