Maintenance company
I bought my flat a few years ago. Knocked down half price through reposession. I was aware there was Maintanence to pay for the flat as is the norm. no problem in that, infact - it should be a good thing.

My main gripe recently - is the cost for it. I live in a block of flats with over 30 other flats. No lift, no special gates or anything... only thing i can see we pay for is general upkeep of building, we have the lawn cut 6 times a year, not a huge grass area no bigger than say collectively two tennis courts in size, and the hallways hoovered (along with electricity)... yet its costing me over £1200 a year.

This raises a few issues
- puts off house buyers
- as the other residents are tenants, their landlords are actually in various place across the globe, meaning getting agreement to challenge the cost would be extremely difficult or impossible.
- They can keep upping the cost, if i dont pay - I can lose my property.
- as the rest of the residents dont pay the maintanence they treat the place like crap, leading to adhoc work, which i end up paying.


also

quite oddly - I pay as part of the maintanence, "terrorism insurance"

What the hell do i need that for? I live miles from any significant landmark or city.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Thu 9 Aug 2012, 12:58, 2 replies)

It's common when the freeholder is either a company, or an absentee.
You're not paying for maintenance, you're paying the profit of whoever owns the freehold, and possibly the company that manages the property.

Their business model is thus: Hit tenants for as much as you can, and spend as little as possible.

That's about it, I think.

I can see it would make the place hard to sell. When I bought mine, I checked that very carefully. Mine is a shared freehold between two properties. Each property owns 1 share on the company that owns the freehold. We have no payments at all, although of course if something breaks, we have to pay to fix it (as will you . . .). I wouldn't have bought a place if it wasn't set up like that.
(username failed moderation, Thu 9 Aug 2012, 13:26, closed)

or
more likely you are paying a management company rather than the freeholder. Most freeholders sit back and collect minimal ground rent waiting for your lease to slip away so you have to extend your lease at great cost to you (or no one can get a mortgage on it when you try to sell it). Chances are you have a management company (which you have the right to be a director of) being run by a managing agent.
It is always a case of getting enough people interested though which is always the big problem.
Leasehold property is one of the biggest screw overs going.
(cmouse is pondering about life in other jobs, Thu 9 Aug 2012, 15:00, closed)