Buying ex-council Flat

SeniorFronted

Hi everyone,

I've found a flat that I'm hoping to purchase - nice area, good size. It ticks a lot of boxes for me but it's ex-council. My main concerns are being hit with high maintenance costs and how easy it would be to sell on in a few years.

I'm a first time buyer so I'm trying to keep quite risk averse. I've generally been avoiding looking at flats in blocks and sticking to period conversions to avoid high services fees. The flat I've found is on an estate with about 80 flats. The blocks look to have been built in the 80s/90s, have pitched roofs and no lifts/electric gates. The grounds seem to be tidy and well maintained. There are two blocks in total with some communal grounds that include parking spaces, garages and sheds.

I know council freeholders like to keep properties constantly maintained to the very latest specs which obviously has the pro of being well maintained but the con of having expensive upkeep. I've also heard stories of big works with major costs every few years. The advert for the flat says last year's service charge was £830 (though I've seen another similarly sized flat in the same estate saying theirs was £1200). Both are reasonable but I'd expect them to be near enough the same?

My main question would be whether or not the size of the estate would be likely to attract higher maintenance costs over the next few years. How would this risk compare to a smaller block of, say, 8-12 flats?

And also, to what extent are potential buyers put off by properties that are ex-council? Judging from sale history records I could find, I think about 40% are already privately owned. It's definitely among the better looking council blocks I've seen except in the stairwells which do have a very basic concrete look.

All opinions very welcome! Thanks so much in advance for any advice

silvercar

I’d be worried that the council decide to do some development of the estate and all the owner occupiers receive a large bill.

id also be concerned with mortgagability. 

tacpot12

I own an ex-council flat on a leasehold basis. The council is the freeholder. The flat is one of nine in a block. 

My local council are pretty good and the service charges, insurance and ground rent are all pretty reasonable. 

I've had to pay for some major works, but the costs are probably what you would pay for repairs to any home you own. The council seem to pay higher costs than ordinary home owners would for the same work, but this is offset by the fact that the work is being done on the whole block, so it is split across 9 properties and there are efficiencies that can be had. One of the works I had to pay for was the communal areas (which were also bare concrete) to be painted white and have better lighting and double-glazed windows installed, even though the communal areas are unheated. This work did substantially improve the 'ambience' of the communal areas and kept them warmer. The block that I bought in had already had the cavity walls insulated by the council. The EPC was in Band C when I bought it which is still quite good. 

I don't think the councils aim to keep the blocks upto the highest standard but if new regulations come in, they will address them, whereas many other landlords will leave the situation until they cannot avoid spending some money. And then they might only spend the bare minium, which can be a risk to your safety and/or the value of your property.

I don't think the size of the estate will have an especially bad effect. Most people would prefer to live in a smaller estates/developments, but with the housing shortage there can be little choice at times.

I've been pleased with my purchase, but it is very much down to your local council. You might try to find another local leaseholder and ask them what their experience has been.  

  



 

diggingdude

Worth noting that many council freehold flats won't have sinking funds, hence being hit with big bills, whereas non council ones often will. It's all a trade off though, you could get lucky, not pay into a fund and move before any big bills appear, where's often you will pay into the fine and see no benefit as you move before works are done 

NameUnavailable

The downside is that Councils tend to use large contractors whose charges are likely to be much higher than some local builder/handyman. Also you can't ever club together with other leaseholders to buy the freehold (so how long is the lease now?).

OTOH when there's a large bill, councils will often allow you to pay the bill off over a period of time whereas one would usually have to find the money immediately. Also they aren't likely to try to defraud you of money as some private freeholders seem to!