I would never own another flat again. It is a licence to rape you senseless. The service charge on my one bed flat in bow was 2600 quid yearly (no parking, no porter no nothing ). And every year without fail it went up, and I was asked for 2/300 quid as a balancing payment . The residents in my block are also going to get a shock in 4/5 years time when they get the bill for the internal redecorate and new carpets which is on the cards. That'll be , at a guess, a request for something between £2-3k per flat. That's before the roof need any serious work.
Leasehold / Share of Freehold stuff is OK - provided you know the right questions to ask and how to ask them. Granted, that's not much use in a sellers market apart from identifying bullets to dodge, but now things have changed.
I would never own another flat again. It is a licence to rape you senseless. The service charge on my one bed flat in bow was 2600 quid yearly (no parking, no porter no nothing ). And every year without fail it went up, and I was asked for 2/300 quid as a balancing payment . The residents in my block are also going to get a shock in 4/5 years time when they get the bill for the internal redecorate and new carpets which is on the cards. That'll be , at a guess, a request for something between £2-3k per flat. That's before the roof need any serious work.