Owning your own home

Has the management company not got a sinking fund for such major projects?

Are all the 30 flats you mention on upper floors? It would be unreasonable to expect owners of ground floor flats to contribute towards the cost of the lifts.

There is quite a mix of rented and owned in this block, using ours as an example the landlord had not paid the service charge for 3 years- he cleared that when he sold the place to us.

This seems to be quite common, I think 14% of flats are in default currently on the service charge.

Sink fun - apparently not, they claim to be tapped, as KFH trousered most of the fund when they were in charge, that's why this is an additional charge to the standard maintenance.

We are on the first floor, so will get hit for lifts come what may.