Stuck in a shared ownership nightmare

SarahB16

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099226#Comment_82099226

No matter the sales price I think the £1,000 a month in service charges would deter most people.

I think OP perhaps needs to get a breakdown of what that £1,000 a month service charges comprises of and potentially challenge anything that doesn't seem right.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099257#Comment_82099257

With these shared ownership schemes for the elderly there are usually staff on site to provide assistance if required and common living areas for residents to socialise and take part in organised activities.

All of this of course needs to be paid for hence the higher monthly "service" charges.

silvercar

Whether the £1,000 is excessive, if other flats have sold, clearly there is a market. The difficulty is finding the right price to market it at.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgykp79ezyo

ResourcesShared

I am sorry to hear about the situation your family are facing, and I'm sure this isn't what your aunt would have wanted for you all. Unfortunately, a number of estate executors have experienced similar problems selling a shared ownership retirement flat. (Is it an Older Persons Shared Ownership (OPSO) Extra Care property?).

Shared Ownership Resources has published a number of case studies by people in similar situations, who have inherited SO retirement flats. For example:

My SO Home: No. 35 and My SO Home: No. 34

There are a number of features on inheriting retirement flats on the website. For example:

Inheriting OPSO: Q&A with WBD legal experts

We are currently working on a buyback report, which highlights issues related to selling SO retirement flats, and which will be launched on 9 September. We also have a WhatsApp buyback group for peer support and information sharing. Please consider signing up to the mailing list for updates (choose the option 'Inherited SO'). And don't hesitate to get in touch: info@sharedownershipresources.org

SarahB16

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82103228#Comment_82103228

Really great to hear you are doing this.

A genuine question - do you think the reason why they aren't selling is because they are retirement flats and therefore symptomatic of the wider problem affecting the sale of retirement flats?

HampshireH

Why are you paying out of your own pocket for anything? As executor the estate should be paying.

Unpopular opinion maybe but if you were to stop paying would the HA go for possession? Would this be the better solution? Most leases have a clause whereby non payment will result in forfeiture of the lease.

Legal advice is obviously recommended.

mta999

The estate should be paying all these charges until all the money in the estate has been exhausted at which point they can wipe their hands of the matter (*)

You are not alone - this is a national scandal and there are many articles on Google about this

People have been trying to sell these kind of flats for years and some can't even give them away

This has a lot in common with the timeshare problems people are having

(*) just to clarify - it is not clear from your post if you are paying the charges or if you are letting them accrue but the correct way is to look at the estate as a whole and any savings or cash at the bank etc can be used to pay the service charges but once cash runs out you need to inform them the estate does not have any more cash and any outstanding service charges will be paid once the property has sold from the proceeds

Note if there are any other creditors in the estate then you shouldn't even be paying the service charges from savings etc because if your estate ends up being insolvent because the service charge bill is worth more than the flat is worth then you will have to apportion whatever money you get from the flat between creditors

In fact once the service charge bill exceeds the value of the flat then they will never be able to recoup all of their service charge bill arrears (which will keep increasing each month) and it might get them to try and sort something out

daveyjp

Without knowing the property or services being paid for there is no way of assessing whether £1,000 a month is reasonable. Some retirement homes are in older listed buildings and £1,000 a month wouldn't be enough.

Insurance on such buildings can be eyewatering due to the potential rebuild costs of many millions.

The advice above is however sound, this is a debt to the estate, not individuals. Just keep beneficiaires updated and let them know at the end of all this they may receive very little of what was expected.

saajan_12

Key Preliminary questions:

1. Is the house still owned by the estate not given out to the beneficiaries?
2. What other assets did aunt have, eg cash, investments, property, etc?

If the estate was close to insolvent then just wash your hands of it and let the freeholder take back the lease. If there is other money or assets then those stand against the debts too, but its still coming out of the estate and not your personal money.