Who else can I complain to????

2boysmum

We live in an ex-council flat in Glasgow, our whole street has started to be renovated, they are tenement style flats with 8 flats in each building, with a mixture of council tenants and homeowners, our building is situated at the end of the street and only has 4 flats, all of which are owned. If you are a homeowner you have to pay an eighth of the costs but are entitled to a grant of up to 75%, which is paid immediately, the price of the works is approx £10,000 before the grant. We have been told that because all 4 flats in our block are owned they are not doing any work to it. We were quite unhappy about this as the work is for new roofs, gutters and over-cladding all of which our building badly needs, we all got together and decided we would like the work done so contacted the council to see about getting the work done and applying for grants etc, we were told that there was a 4 year waiting list for a grant an if we went ahead and had the work done just now we could not claim for a grant later as they would see it as that if we could afford to pay for it then we don't need a grant!!!! We are extremely angry as the grant that we would receive after the 4 years is less money than the grant the other homeowners will receive, so basically we are being penalised because we don't have a council tenant in our building, I have contacted the council but basically they aren't interested because we are not council tenants even though we pay a factors fee to them, I have e-mailed our m.p and am waiting for a reply, does anyone have any other ideas of what we can do?
Sorry for the long rant

lynnexxxo

Hi there

I don't mean to sound horrible but I really don't see that you have a case. You effectively living in a block of flats that is privately owned - so why should the council renovate it? It does seem harsh as there is probably people in the same street getting there house renovated for a fraction of the price that it will cost you - but thats the joys of being a homeowner - you have to pay for repairs to your property.

2boysmum

We pay a factors fee each month to the council who are responsible for the upkeep of the building, if we want to get any work done we have to do it through the council because they are our factor, its the fact that homeowners a few doors down are getting the same work done for a lower price than us and they don't have to wait for 4 years for a grant. We don't have a problem paying for repairs we just want to be treated the same as everyone else.

clutton_2

but you are home owners and not tenants and the law treats you differently - sorry i know that is not what you want to hear.

lynnexxxo

I think the difference between your flats and the other blocks is that the other blocks with council flats are more or less being forced to get the renovation work done. And as a sweetener they are recieving a grant to help with the cost.

What sort of grant is it anyway?

mattogier

I'm afraid it's a case of "you paid your price, you take your chance", why should the tax payer fork out for renovating privately owned property. I am in the middle of building an extension to take me up to 7 bedrooms to house additional foster kids but do not expect or deserve a hand out.

I assume that you had a proper survey carried out prior to committing to the purchase and that you have factored a regular amount into your budget for maintenance.

Where blocks do not have 100% private ownership it is only right that any grants are available immediately to the private owners as they (those private owners) do not have any choice in the works being carried out (The council have a responsibility to maintain their owned properties) so be thankful that you can have the works done at a time and point of your choosing - there may be many not as lucky as you who are having to fork out money that they can ill afford.

You will have to invest in maintaining your building - after all it is a financial asset - probably your biggest and if you don't look after it you will loose money when you come to sell.

You are a grown up now - with responsibilities that you chose to take on - please don't become part of the "blame culture" that is a major cause of today's social difficulties.

silvercar

The problem is that the council owns the block and you have the lease.

In a totally private block (as yours effectively is), the freeholder (council in your case) will decide what works need doing and the costs distributed among the leaseholders, usually by way of managing charges. No grants.

The complaints usually arise in mixed blocks, when the council decides on massive updating, this is good news for the council tenants but would be very expensive for the privately owned flats. Grants were introduced to level the playing field. It was an unfair burden on individuals that leaseholders had to pay large bills suddenly when they only had their private pockets to fall back on but councils had large funds at their disposal. The grant would lesson the weight of the repair bill and in some way acknowledged that the flats were never truely private in as much as the council could say and do what they please.

In your case, the council is not doing the work and you don't have to pay. Nothing to complain about I would suggest. If you all want the work done, you all have to pay. This may not be fair in that if there was still a tenant in your block, you would get a grant, but you can hardly complain that you exercised your RTB but someone else shouldn't be allowed to RTB. It brings you directly in line with private owned blocks - which is exactly ehay you have now, except that your freeholder is from the "not for profit sector" rather than being a private company.

One thing you could consider is all the tenants buying the freehold off the freeholder and managing the block yourselves.

If your complaint is against anyone, it would be to the solicitor that handled your purchase; you should have been advised that you would have to pay towards the upkeep of the block.
But the grounds would be weak - no repairs, no bill - no complaint.

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote: »

One thing you could consider is all the tenants buying the freehold off the freeholder and managing the block yourselves

...Or taking the Right To Manage which would hopefully negate the need to pay the council anything except ground rent. Will cost something like £125 for each flat in your block and you then take responsibility. Knowing how contractors significantly raise their prices for councils, you will probably save money immediately.

If you have long leases, the freehold option may not be so cost effective. Short leases, freehold may make more sense! Really depends on the number of years remaining on your lease.

Guy_Montag

Silvercar is wrong in this case (very rare I know), there is no such thing as freehold in Scotland - most houses & flats have fuedal tenure (how delightfully medieval), which is, effectively, freehold. Generally the building & ground on which it is built is owned by the flat owners.

In this case you have been paying a charge to the council for maintenance, but this could be paid to any factor company. It probably doesn't cover major works though.

I would start by going through the contract you have with the council for being the factor to check to see what that says is included as their service. I'd also check out what other factors charge for the same service, you may be paying too much.

Then assuming, the charge you pay doesn't cover major works, I'd start getting quotes from local builders to see what they would charge to do the work.

In the mean time you're right to be lobbying your MP, MSP & local councilors to get them to take on your case.


Good luck.

irnbru_2

2boysmum wrote: »

Sorry for the long rant

I'm guessing it's the housing association (GHA) and not the council?

The issue is that the GHA is both LL and factor. As a LL it's doing all the repairs to it's buildings within which it has 50% or more tenants but, obviously, you don't qualify due to all dwellings being owner occuppied.

I'd contact your MSP (housing is a devolved issue?).

However, I agree with lynnexxxo that enforcement of the upgrade has necessitated that these owners receive a better grant.

silvercar

I stand corrected on the feudal- tenure business.

It seems that you are in the same situation as a flat owner in a block that was always private. As such, I can't see your complaint having much success; if all the flats are now privately owned (which is what the original tenants wanted), how can you complain? If the council did pay a grant towards the upkeep of your block, can a private block expect the same grant?

The issue is where you go from here. Clearly, the building is going to have to be maintained. Otherwise the flat will lose value. It seems to me that you either need to get to grip with the maintenance and arrange for it to be dome amongst yourselves, or sell-up and move away from the problem before the block begins to look too shabby, or wait for the situation to get so bad (leaky roof? your not on the top floor are you?) that the council feels forced to step in and do something.