Lift repairs

lkane0

We’ve just received notice from our flat’s management company that the communal lift needs a new control panel.
The letter states that they have to write to flat owners when the repairs will exceed £250 per flat.

I wondered whether anyone knew how expensive this kind of repair is (just roughly - is its hundreds, thousands?), and why it would be separate to the maintenance charges we pay every year, that includes a lift fund?

Thanks!

pattypan4

oh my goodness, lift repairs are so expensive but so necessary, lifts need to be in safe working order at all times. Obviously the cost exceeds what is in the lift fund. The alternative to the top-up charge is more added onto service charges year on year. I cannot remember the lift maintenance costs from the time I lived in a development with a lift, only used by those in the manor part btw but paid by all. A drive unit costs about £5000 I think and I am guessing that a control panel will cost £1000 plus fitting

anselld

A requirement of Section 20 of the L&T Act ..
https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/section-20-consultation-private-landlords-resident-management-companies-agents/

AdrianC

They've separated it out from the fund because it'd empty the fund, and you'll then get tapped up for any other bills.

You're paying the same either way, it's just how they account for it.


As for the s20 notice - they're giving you advance warning of what they think might be a large bill, and giving you the opportunity to get your preferred supplier quoting. When they get the quotes in, they may find it comes in under the £250/leaseholder cap. They may find it's fundable from the existing pot.


I've just had that happen with lighting and surface repairs to external stairs - s20 warning, then "Ah, it's OK, we can fund it. Sorry to bother you."

lkane0

Thank you all. If anyone has experience of the actual cost, that would be interesting.

There’s £3k in the Lift reserve pot, so it makes sense that it could be more than this to do the repair. Although there’s £28k in the Main reserve pot - but I expect (hope) that’s for future roof works!
I’d always thought that the £1500 we pay a year for maintenance was saving for these things.

Good to know that the letter may be a precaution and it may come to less - there’s 15 flats that contribute to the lift, so a £5k repair bill would sound manageable.

AdrianC

lkane0 wrote: »

Thank you all. If anyone has experience of the actual cost, that would be interesting.

I rather suspect it depends on the lift...

There’s £3k in the Lift reserve pot, so it makes sense that it could be more than this to do the repair. Although there’s £28k in the Main reserve pot - but I expect (hope) that’s for future roof works!
I’d always thought that the £1500 we pay a year for maintenance was saving for these things.

It is. That's where the £28k and the £3k have come from.
And, yes, they can rummage around and move things from pot to pot... But if those pots have been emptied on a single unexpected big-ticket item, they still need to be refilled for the routine stuff, and for the expected big-ticket stuff that's going to need doing in the future...

G_M

lkane0 wrote: »

I’d always thought that the £1500 we pay a year for maintenance was saving for these things.

Well it is, but


a) it's impossible to know how much future repairs are going to cost
b) and impossible to know how soon it will be needed (so how much time the fund has to build up)
c) so impossible to guage how much to charge annually to set aside
d) and if they over-estimated (thus having excess in the fund if/when needed), and you sold your flat, you'd be complaining that your buyer was benefitting from the huge reserve fund that you had paid for......!

pattypan4

a lift can be a death trap and needs a service 6 times a year. Not everyone using a lift looks after it, messing with controls, putting heavy white goods in it, going up and down as a fun thing.