Buying a flat whose freeholder is a housing association

SallyDucati

xiaq said:

Thanks for everyone who has replied! I'm much better informed now.

One thing I'm still unsure about is - do HAs provide subpar services (I'm most concerned about repairs in the building) compared to other freeholders? I've read a lot of bad reviews about the HA not repairing properties for HA tenants in time, does that mean, say, they may also not repair a bad lift or leaking main pipe in the flat I'm buying in time? I know these are not exactly the same thing, but reading those bad reviews just left me with an impression that HAs are poorly run organizations in general.

I used to own a flat where the leasehold management company was a HA.  They were appalling slow to get anything done and part of the reason I decided to move to a freehold house.  On the development half the blocks were leasehold, the other half social HA housing.  The social HA housing was much better looked after than the leasehold side, and it wasn't for want of owner occupiers trying to get things done or the sinking fund being short of cash (it wasn't).  Just inaction from the HA.  

Technically the company managing the leasehold was a commercial arm of the HA, and out to make a profit.

This is just my experience, there may well be better run HA leasehold management companies out there but personally I wouldn't go back to owning a flat managed by them.

kasqueak

xiaq said:

I've found a pretty nice flat and am considering to make an offer, but I noticed that the freeholder is a housing association. I looked it up on Google and they seem to have a lot of negative press and a lot of tenants complaining about terrible service on their Google Maps listing.

I've since found out that virtually all housing associations in the UK have a lot of negative reviews on their Google Maps listings, so it probably doesn't say much about this particular association.

Still, is the fact that the flat's freeholder is a housing association something to consider? I was told that they also have a lower service charge compared to similar properties, is that a red flag that the building might be poorly managed?

I owned a flat where the freeholder/manager was the local authors housing association. 

This is my experience and I appreciate it won’t be the same for the council you’re buying from (this is in Kent) :

Pros:
*The service charges were generally lower than comparable flats in the area. 

*Well built, decent size flats

*Generally in good locations for town, transport  etc 

Cons:
*There were council tenants in the block, now generally they were ok but there were a few unsavoury characters and the council were useless trying to deal with them. I know you get bad neighbours anywhere but the council somehow seemed to protect some of these people despite the misery they caused other residents (in my opinion). 

*I felt as a leaseholder I had little say in anything. For example they organise the buildings insurance and you had no say in things you felt should be included like trace and search and when we had a leak we had to pay out £3000 for searches for the leak from the upstairs flat before it was eventually reimbursed. A trace and search would have covered such thing. 

*The cost of repairs always seemed astronomically high as I think the firms the council get to quote rip them off. 

*When I went to sell on I found it hard due to the stigma of it being ex local authority. 

Crumble2018

We live in a flat with a HA freeholder.  The flats are split into 3 blocks - the middle block is HA tenants, and the 2 outer blocks are owned or part owned.

We have had no issues at all - we moved in at the end of last year, and have had a few things needing repairs - all have been done in a reasonable time, including a leaking roof.  We have made sure that we established a good rapport with the lady that deals with maintenance, and I think that helps!

xiaq

Thank you for sharing your experiences! I guess the situation varies depending on the HA and the building but at least it's not an immediate red flag.

I've decided not to move forward with this flat though as it turned out to have known EWS1 compliance issues.