Owning your own home

I have a no ground rent, leasehold on a flat, no sinking fund.

Either I can let the landlord S20 us, or we can take on wear and tear maintenance ourselves. We're doing the latter for roof work currently.

I personally don't think it's necessary, the only question is whether people have enough savings to cover unexpected 4 and 5 figure surprises in the future. If they don't... sinking funds give a degree of peace of mind (but can still fall short).

I'm meh on it... if it's such a concern, can they afford home ownership? I have more questions about who controls the sinking fund and who gets quotes and authorises work.

My flat was a share of freehold (me and the guy who owned downstairs) with barely any common areas and it still took a while for the buyers to twig a sinking fund or similar wasn't necessary.

Question to other people who own flats, our buyer seems quite concerned over there being no sinking fund for our flat.

Does your lease make provision for a sinking fund or reserve fund? Not all leases do, and if the leases in your building don't provide for a sinking fund then that's just the way it is unless everyone agrees to a variation of the leases.

our buyer seems quite concerned over there being no sinking fund for our flat.

Yeah I’d be concerned too in the context of an ex LA flat. But it’s the wrong concern, given that those kinds of places never have sinking funds.

The right concern is when was the most recent works and what where they? If the roof hasn’t been done in 20 years well he’s gonna foot the bill and have no choice on when and how it’s done.

Maybe your buyer is smart enough to ask that question...or maybe not.