buying a flat in sydehnam
buying a flat in sydehnam
hi, i am thinking of moving to sydenham and saw a flat i like in torrington court, an art deco building on crystal palace park road. the estate agent quoted me a huge service/maintenace charge (£170 a month). I am keen to get in touch with residents who migh tbe able to tell me what the managinf agents are like as those charges seems really quite high for a 1 bed flat! Thank you very much for any input or advice.
I used to pay that when I lived in Canonbie Road. You pay less living in Central London!
I wouldn't have minded if the property manager actually did something. No maintenance was ever done and she was never available, always off somewhere exotic. It took a year of complaints for her to finally employ a gardener and someone to clean to communal hall. We got burgled because she refused to get the front door fixed. They just walked in off the street and kicked our door down (which also didn't lock properly so they could have just walked in). The frame just splinted (she renovated the flats and then sold them on retaining the freehold, so that's why it's her fault). Then to add insult to injury she sent her mother around to sort everything out.
Then there was the massive leak in the entire building. Refused to sort that out. Said it was all my fault 'coz she didn't like the look of my shower screen. When a plumber finally came around to check it out turned out all the bathrooms in the entire building where installed by some cowboy and all were the cause of the leak. Once again she did a disappearing act.
I could on and on about this, it was a bad experience. But it got to the stage where I refused to pay the service charge. I eventually moved to Sydenham and now only pay £600 a year for service.
You're doing the right thing by checking with the neighbours. Don't get caught like I did.
I wouldn't have minded if the property manager actually did something. No maintenance was ever done and she was never available, always off somewhere exotic. It took a year of complaints for her to finally employ a gardener and someone to clean to communal hall. We got burgled because she refused to get the front door fixed. They just walked in off the street and kicked our door down (which also didn't lock properly so they could have just walked in). The frame just splinted (she renovated the flats and then sold them on retaining the freehold, so that's why it's her fault). Then to add insult to injury she sent her mother around to sort everything out.
Then there was the massive leak in the entire building. Refused to sort that out. Said it was all my fault 'coz she didn't like the look of my shower screen. When a plumber finally came around to check it out turned out all the bathrooms in the entire building where installed by some cowboy and all were the cause of the leak. Once again she did a disappearing act.
I could on and on about this, it was a bad experience. But it got to the stage where I refused to pay the service charge. I eventually moved to Sydenham and now only pay £600 a year for service.
You're doing the right thing by checking with the neighbours. Don't get caught like I did.
Yes property management & service charges are a cesspool of inefficient and sometimes corrupt companies charging over the top to deliver little and seriously damage the resale price of homes. This can dwarf the service charge.
I know, one of my clients is targetting this market with something called service and long term budgetted service plans (fewer nasty surprises). I won't mention them here but feel free to PM me if you want further info. It is usually very easy to change agents and save if you can organise yourself as a block. Just check out their reputation first!
Admin
I know, one of my clients is targetting this market with something called service and long term budgetted service plans (fewer nasty surprises). I won't mention them here but feel free to PM me if you want further info. It is usually very easy to change agents and save if you can organise yourself as a block. Just check out their reputation first!
Admin
It is very easy to change service managers. The process is so that tenants can do this themselves without legal representation.
The difficult part is getting the entire block on board. The vocal owners in my old block were keen to sack our property manager but a couple of flats were rented and the owners did not want to know. Plus to make matters worse the mother of the property manager owned one of the flats.
This is assuming that the property management in the block you're thinking of buying in isn't up to scratch. You could find that you do get good value for money.
The difficult part is getting the entire block on board. The vocal owners in my old block were keen to sack our property manager but a couple of flats were rented and the owners did not want to know. Plus to make matters worse the mother of the property manager owned one of the flats.
This is assuming that the property management in the block you're thinking of buying in isn't up to scratch. You could find that you do get good value for money.