Major Works on ex-Council Flat

haseebmukhtar

Hi
I need some advice.
I am in a process on buying an ex-council flat (College Court EN3 4EY) and freeholder is Enfield Council. The process was started in the start of October and my mortgage offer letter was received on mid October.

Now in January we discovered there was notices of major work and Notice 20B was also served but the final bill is not generated yet. (Even the estate agent was not aware of major work bills).
From last one month we are trying to get the estimates of major work but every time we got reply from seller's solicitor is that the council cannot give final amount and we replying that all we need estimates to decide. (They are just ignoring to provide the estimates and answering some thing else).

I tried to contact council to get estimates but they said they can only provide information to leaseholder or his solicitor. On 20B notice it says the total amount so far is £2.9 million but this is for multiple blocks and the proportion of this flat can be calculated by rateable value of flat /rateable value of block. (I am unable to get the rateable values and the seller is also not providing the rateable values)

Any suggestions please, how should I proceed.

Thanks

haseebmukhtar

The seller is not willing to pay for major work bills, he said is not completed so he is not liable.
I have told him I need to get estimates to decide if I will buy the flat or not.

GreenSnake

How much have you paid in conveyance so far?
I would be tempted to just hold off for now.
Too many unknowns for me.
Plenty of other properties to buy.

haseebmukhtar

Hi
Thanks for your response.
So far I have paid £1000 to my solicitor and £450 for lender's survey.

Thanks

GreenSnake

haseebmukhtar wrote: »

Hi
Thanks for your response.
So far I have paid £1000 to my solicitor and £450 for lender's survey.

Thanks

That's quite a lot. Quite expensive, regardless of the problems with renovations now encountered.

Mind you, leasehold is more expensive conveyance I believe. I've only ever bought freehold, so can't comment further.

lincroft1710

These major works bills can run into 5 figures. Buying an ex-council flat is not without problems, look for somewhere else

SuperMoose

I'm assuming this isn't the flat you are buying (it's still College Court) but it does have the following information on the details.

"The vendor has also advised that all recent major works on the block have been completed."

:think:

haseebmukhtar

Hi SuperMoose

Yes you have seen the correct ad this is the one I am buying.
The council letter clearly said its not completed (started in 2016) and its not billed yet.

Thanks

VintageHistorian

If you're struggling to get even an estimate from the vendor then I suspect it's because it's in to the tens of thousands of pounds region. I used to rent a room in a flat that in a block of ex-council flats, we had a knock on the door one evening from the flat below. They'd bought their flat six months before and had just been informed by the council that works were due to be carried out on the building, their share was estimated at £40k. They were desperately trying to find some other owner-occupiers in the building to check if they'd been given the same estimate, but since we were tenants and hadn't heard anything from the landlord we couldn't give an answer. I think they were of the opinion that they'd been quoted a large share of the bill in order to subsidise the remaining council tenants in the block, but whether that was the case who knows.

I'm not sure what the proposed works were, but it was a three-storey building with a total of 21 flats in total, so not the biggest flat block in London.

Either way, that gives you an indication of the potential cost of work for a flat. Depending on how much you're paying to buy it then £40k could be a hefty percentage of the cost you're already paying, in which case your vendor will be desperately trying to keep it from you!

StumpyPumpy

For me there are just too many problems with this purchase. The listing Supermoose found says that all major works have been completed, yet you say there are more in the pipeline. To me, that reeks of an untrustworthy vendor and I'd immediately start wondering what else they were lying about.

I am curious as to why the price when up £15k in the 6 months since listing in August last year, have they extended the lease from 81 years? If not, why the increase? Are they over-inflating the price because of all the new builds that are cropping up and hoping to reel in a fish?

And if the lease is only 81 years, that would be another red flag for me because it means that you may well have problems when you come to sell.

I'd be viewing the money already spent as sunk funds (aka lost) and get out now before you lose more, though first I'd get an opinion from my solicitor about whether they thought the listing and subsequent documentation was misleading and whether you had a case that you could pursue to retrieve some of the spent funds. Probably not going to happen, but worth asking.


SP

AubreyMac

haseebmukhtar wrote: »

Hi SuperMoose

Yes you have seen the correct ad this is the one I am buying.
The council letter clearly said its not completed (started in 2016) and its not billed yet.

Thanks

I live in a ex council flat (think I'm the only one to have bought in my block).


When works are done, you are billed for it 2 years later. I'm not sure if this is law or whether it's just courtesy from the freeholder. So it's possible that the works have been completed as the above poster pointed out but you may still get hit with the bill.


Can't your conveyancer be more pushy? If I were you I'd hold off on the sale until you get definitive answers. You've spent 1.5k so far and that would be a loss to back out now but you could stand to lose a lot more if you are not cautious enough.