Owning your own home

first flat viewings booked for next week

Have you spoken to a bank/mortgage broker wrt a mortgage?

Can you get pre-approved in the UK? That's what we did... Got our finances in order then went and found the house we wanted...

Yep! We want to borrow a fair bit less than what weve been told we could borrow up to so fairly confident we’ll be alright

Nice, good luck!

Although my stupid flat is on the market, the management company are ignoring/not responding to my communications about issues with noise.

I've sent them a copy of the clause in the lease which talks about the need for "carpet or suitable flooring" to minimise noise in the building. And have asked them communicate with the owners of the flat above me, in order to ask about getting carpet put down.

Anyway. No response for 4 weeks now. Am I within my rights to withhold service charges?

You might want to knock that on the head. You have to declare disputes to potential buyers, and any wind of noise complaints is going to put them right off.

Anyway. No response for 4 weeks now. Am I within my rights to withhold service charges?

No.

The rule with Service Charges is that you pay them first and dispute them later. Threaten 'em with the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal!

I know this can vary a lot but place we viewed is 200/mo service charge for an ex LA 2 bed. Is this normal?? seems much higher than i expected

Is a portion of that held back and used to fund major works contributions?

Does the property have a lift?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, then it's reasonable.

When looking at ex LA property some really great questions to ask:

• when was the last section 20 served
  
• what was done
  
• how was it paid for
  

Problem with threats is that you have to have the ability to follow them through, and with the property on the market you almost certainly do not.

Thanks, will find out

If you want, I can talk you through some of the pitfalls of ex LA properties. For the price of a beer / coffee, I could save you many £1,000s.

As also said, see if a sinking fund is included.
Also find out if the fee is set to increase or has contractual rises (some may have an annual % rise, or a set increase every 5 years for example)
These things tend to only increase so if £200 is as much as you can afford ontop of rent/ mortgage be warned it will probably creep up over a few years.

Also find out if the fee is set to increase or has contractual rises (some may have an annual % rise, or a set increase every 5 years for example)

Ex LA stuff is typically pretty good for this. The agreements are usually not stupid; like most sensible agreements there is little chance of built in service charge escalation. But they can rise if the expense of running the block increases.

Same goes for ground rent, in that some bullshit 50% increase very five years gouging is highly unlikely; LAs are typically not trying to profiteer from their leaseholders.

They do screw them over in other interesting ways, however.

Ah fair enough, I have limited experience, but you hear horror stories.

Cheers for the answers.

I may well take you up on that if we decide we like one. This one was a no anyway but wanted to get gauge on whether it was normal or not

Monthly cost isnt really our problem more just setting expectations

I have an ex council flat in Greenwich, building has 10 floors and 2 elevators,
Service charge is around £65 per month and ground rent £10 per year.

And no sink fund I’d imagine?

We have no lift and no sink fund and pay £100ish.

My other housing assoc managed flat... £130ish but £40 m/o is being sunk.

You are right

When was the last section 20 served?

I would have to check but it's not a big concern since I don't have a mortgage and funds set aside.

you think that.

Then they send you the notice of estimates

And you think what you needed to earn before tax to be able to pay it

It’s probably much easier if you’ve lived there for a long, long time.