Interested in this flat

ahfat41

Am interested in this flat.  The freeholder is the council and the upstairs flat , a two storeys is rented by a council tenantt.  Should I be concerned of regular changing of tenants?  Also when booking a survey may be a home survey instead of a building if there are issues flagged.  Who will normally sort them,with a house you try to renegotiate with the owner but with a local authority freeholder not sure what to do! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108462005#/

gwynlas

Very attractive property but the council could house the tenants from hell above you. With period conversions you might have issues with noise transference as sound insulation even retro fitted is not likely to be upto current standards.

eddddy

ahfat41 said:

Also when booking a survey may be a home survey instead of a building if there are issues flagged.  Who will normally sort them,with a house you try to renegotiate with the owner but with a local authority freeholder not sure what to do! 

Are you asking who is responsible repairing any problems with the flat and/or the building (whether they're found by the survey or otherwise)?


The lease will tell you who's responsible for repairing what.


But usually, things inside the flat (like a leaking pipe, dodgy electrics, broken door etc) has to be repaired be the leaseholder - i.e. the owner of the flat.


And the communal areas and the building structure (like the roof, walls, foundations) is repaired by the freeholder - but the freeholder doesn't pay for the repairs - the leaseholders (i.e. flat owners) have to pay.

NameUnavailable

I think a council tenant with that flat will hold on to it for dear life! So no, I wouldn't be worried about a stream of new neighbours.

Any issues with the fabric of the building will (usually) be charged to the leaseholders in proportion, if you are the only leaseholder the council will pay the share for their tenant and you will pay your share. It is down to the freeholders to maintain the building (so if the survey raises any issues you can ask the council when they will attend to them, but you can't do any work yourself).

TBagpuss

Council tenancies are likely to be more stable than private ones, but of course as with any flat, there's always the risk of bad neighbours . One plus point may be that the council or HA probably has formal processes for dealing with neighbour complaints so may be more responsive than a private landlord would be. 

Windofchange

Thing is though really you could have bad neighbours move in regardless of ownership. I used to live in a similar place in London, and the street had a mix of housing association tenants and privately owned property. We had one neighbour for a couple of years who was an utter disaster with all sorts of noise, smoking weed etc, and then they moved out thankfully and we had a lovely young family move in who had the most well behaved and quiet toddler you could ever wish for! I've also lived on a very upmarket street with the house next door occupied by a wannabe drum and bass DJ whose parents couldn't have cared less as they were usually out themselves partying and so on. I now live in a very quiet neighbourhood. I wouldn't personally be put off by the upstairs being social - not everyone is bad just as not all privately owned properties are occupied by law abiding wonderful people. 

KnownMaynard

Worth considering noise from other tenants, I used to live in a Grade 2 listed building in Easy London which was divided into 6 flats. Great area, good neighbours until the ones above me moved out and were replaced by less considerate ones and I had to hear them stomping up and down late into the night. Even considerate neighbours couldn't help the fact that anyone putting the washing machine on was making the whole building vibrate. Nice flat though glad I was only renting.

Cakeguts

It is marked under offer today.  Was that you?

Crashy_Time

gwynlas said:

Very attractive property but the council could house the tenants from hell above you. With period conversions you might have issues with noise transference as sound insulation even retro fitted is not likely to be upto current standards.

Yep, so don`t spend 400k plus on it.

martindow

A bit off topic, but what is going on with the brickwork above the windows and up the party wall to the house on the left?  That looks very odd.  Has there been some movement or subsidence - it looks as if the end of the building is separating itself from the rest of the terrace.

ahfat41

Cakeguts said:

It is marked under offer today.  Was that you?

No was booked for a viewing tomorrow open day
 Had to ring EA to find it has been cancelled