Owning your own home

wanna see some puppies?

it's relaxed muscle. when danger threatens they turn into a rigid wall of manly manflesh.

chaffing is not uncommon.

Yeah! Stop grooming perfectly innocent young forum members who've never done anything untoward in their lives!

cough

a / s / l ?

19, F, cali

Probably shouldn't cyber on the home ownership thread...

Right. It's difficult to compare like for like because all are addressing a different set of circumstances but I can dig the most recent statement out.

Ultimately the lease defines what you can be charged for so the freeholder will be operating within the boundaries that the leaseholder has agreed. I would have thought.

A few years ago we went to look at a couple of flats in Ruskin Park House in Denmark Hill, a lovely building and grounds, but the service charge was ruinous and everyone was about to be hit with a 14k bill for upgrading common parts, no wonder there were loads of flats for sale!

Told south london to shove it up it's arse and haven't been back since

Ultimately the lease defines what you can be charged for so the freeholder will be operating within the boundaries that the leaseholder has agreed. I would have thought.

I think that's the case 90% of the time, but in one particular case they're not. There's two things:

a) Residents paid for our communal gardens to be turned into a car park, which our freeholder immediately began charging us for, and clamping / issuing tickets to residents, which an LVT found unreasonable but they're still doing it.

b) Managing agents have been putting half our Service Charge into the Reserve Fund which is fine but this year they've also overspent on the Service Charge so we've all got a £400 bill in addition to the very high service charge.

Anyway, the combo of these two things have soured relationships between residents and managing agents and it's leading to residents saying things like our service charge is 'criminal'. Which it isn't, it's just a bit of a shit deal that our managing agents don't care about because they're not having to pay for it. I'm just trying to find a way forward and proving (or disproving) that the actual charges are similar would be a good start.

Just talking to a mate who's moved into a one bed flat in the King's Cross development. Service charge is £300 a month of which only about £20 is going to the sink fund.

Is there a residents association?

Probably has concierge, lifts and a gym with pool

At least I hope it does

Forming one - we just need to get to that magic 60% mark.

Fuck me that is mental

Pretty much what I said, he's trying to convince himself it isn't too bad.

It does have a concierge, but as he's in the "affordable" part he doesn't actually get to use them.

Fuuuuuuk

The Flying Scotsman is no longer the pub it was, now a CAMRA award winning real ale pub.

Used to live around the corner from the Flying Scotsman. What a fucking hole!

/csb

First viewing ever was fun. Loved the area (first thing I saw on exiting the station was a craft beer shop...good start) - but I suspect I've been priced out if all I can afford is a flat-roofed one-bed on a noisy bit of the South Circular above a tile shop. Sunderland Road my foot - it's on the South Circular.

With my budget it's definitely looking more likely I'll be neighbours with @amey than with @Matt and @Dammit.

Edit: @*Matt*, did you put asterisks in your name specifically to screw with the formatting?

Edit edit: Jackpot! Found the escape character.

My wife's nan lives in a flat with a £300 a month service charge. It's got 2 acres of amazing gardens, a gym and pool and a lady called Brenda who will do your shopping and drive you places.

Does it have those things? Fair enough if so.

when can i move in?

Srsly? She could do with the company.

We're 1930s block of 70 flats with no lift an paying £200 per month, partly to top up major works (roof replacement)...that help?

i guess all 4 of us might be too much company

That sounds bang on - we're two blocks of 24 flats each so in total it should be almost the same.

Know it's a bit much but if you wouldn't mind sharing the service charge breakdown that'd be amazing. Would obviously delete any identifying info - just trying to tell our guys the actual figures aren't a million miles off, it's just the management that sucks donkey dick.

We're selling our washing machine and fridge freezer. Bitta spam for breakfast:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/308612/