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Leasehold Service Charge
FIRSTTIMER
Posts: 637 Forumite
Hi,
I am in the final stages of buying a leasehold apartment in a city centre location and just want some final reassurance on the charging.
The cost is £125 per month (1500 per annum - includes 24 hr concierge, cctv, security, monitored burglar alarm, underground secure parking etc). My solicitor has sent me the invoices/detail breakdown of costs from the management company for the past few years. This charge has not increased at all since 2013 and also the pack states there is no major planned work for the next 2 years. There is also a reserve fund which currently has £125k in there. The ground rent is £100. The lease currently has 135 years remaining.
Is there any alarm bells on the above?
I am in the final stages of buying a leasehold apartment in a city centre location and just want some final reassurance on the charging.
The cost is £125 per month (1500 per annum - includes 24 hr concierge, cctv, security, monitored burglar alarm, underground secure parking etc). My solicitor has sent me the invoices/detail breakdown of costs from the management company for the past few years. This charge has not increased at all since 2013 and also the pack states there is no major planned work for the next 2 years. There is also a reserve fund which currently has £125k in there. The ground rent is £100. The lease currently has 135 years remaining.
Is there any alarm bells on the above?
0
Comments
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It all seems pretty reasonable, but two things I'd want to check:
- what kind of building are we talking about? £125K would be plenty for a small building, but not all that much for a large tower block.
- what's happened to the reserve fund over time? I'm a bit worried that the service charge might be a bit low to contribute significantly to the reserve fund, so it might have been static for a while - implying the charge might go up if something happened to use up a chunk of the reserve fund.0 -
Its a 100 apartment block in two separate 50 apartment buildings. (5 Floors Each) The report states this...
Internal Work - Carried out 2014 (Internal Redecoration costing 25k from reserve - next due 2019
External Work - New Build from 2006 - next due 2018
No major work planned for next two years. Box Ticked Yes.
No planned work under section 20 costing more than £250 per lessee. Yes.
Since 2013 which is when I have the reports from, the reserve fund seems to get approx. 20k-40k added every year.0 -
FIRSTTIMER wrote: »I am in the final stages of buying a leasehold apartment in a city centre location and just want some final reassurance on the charging.
The cost is £125 per month (1500 per annum - includes 24 hr concierge, cctv, security, monitored burglar alarm, underground secure parking etc). My solicitor has sent me the invoices/detail breakdown of costs from the management company for the past few years. This charge has not increased at all since 2013 and also the pack states there is no major planned work for the next 2 years. There is also a reserve fund which currently has £125k in there. The ground rent is £100. The lease currently has 135 years remaining.
So there's £1,250 per flat in the sinking fund, going up by about £2-400 per flat from the £1,500 per flat per annum. The maintenance is clearly proactively managed. Doesn't seem too scary to me.FIRSTTIMER wrote: »Its a 100 apartment block in two separate 50 apartment buildings. (5 Floors Each) The report states this...
Internal Work - Carried out 2014 (Internal Redecoration costing 25k from reserve - next due 2019
External Work - New Build from 2006 - next due 2018
No major work planned for next two years. Box Ticked Yes.
No planned work under section 20 costing more than £250 per lessee. Yes.
Since 2013 which is when I have the reports from, the reserve fund seems to get approx. 20k-40k added every year.0 -
Good Stuff! Seems a good enough case for me0
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Yup, sounds solid.0
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