Question for anyone that lives in an apartment

harrison1980

harrison1980

Suspended / Banned
Messages
146
Name
Richard
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi people,

I am currently looking for a place of my own (yes i know the property market is all a bit dodgy at the moment, i'm taking that into consideration too), although i like the idea of an apartment the maintenance / service charge of around £900 a year seems a bit of a stinger, however i couldn't help thinking that seen as you only own your small part of the building (your apartment) that the council tax may be cheap and so the charge mentioned above may not seem so ridiculous

Does anyone live in an apartment and able to "fill me in"

Rich
 
hi mate

i can tell you that you still pay FULL council tax and everything else.

Service charge would be used for cleaning,painting,electric for the share parts (stairways etc)

hope this helps
 
I live in a small apartment in the middle of Cardiff... My council tax is horrendously expensive! It is roughly £120 a month, and that includes the 25% discount for single occupancy!
 
If you are a student then you don't pay Council tax! That may be useful, as it helps me save a couple of ££££ on my flat in London ... but you still have to pay Service Charges which for the maintenance of the building.
 
yep you still have to pay full council tax - check what the service charge includes when i had my flat the service charge was £1200 a year it included the water for my flat, maintenance of the communal hallways and gardens and electric for the communal areas, the intercom subscription, cleaners (when they bothered to show up) also there is ground rent to pay
 
Last edited:
I used to pay 45UKP a month for the flat I used to own, although that wasn't a city centre location. If you are thinking of buying then get in touch with the management company and ask to see where the money goes, what it is spent on and check that the other tenants/owners are up to date with their payments. It's not 'expensive' if you get something worthwhile for your money and the management company is active in maintaining and improving the building. If they are just taking the money, helping themselves to a huge slice as a management fee and not actually doing anything useful to earn it then I would think twice tbh. You can remove a management company but it's a hassle and requires the cooperation of the other owners. The biggest problem I found with owning a flat is that when something needs doing you always have one or two owners who 'can't be bothered' or just bury their heads in the sand and hope the issue resolves itself (which it won't.) We had a problem with the lease on the flat I owned and it took over two years to sort out due to other owners dragging their feet.

In short, make sure everything is in order and being run properly before buying, then the management fee/service charge is worth it.
 
MisterRigsby said:
I used to pay 45UKP a month for the flat I used to own, although that wasn't a city centre location. If you are thinking of buying then get in touch with the management company and ask to see where the money goes, what it is spent on and check that the other tenants/owners are up to date with their payments. It's not 'expensive' if you get something worthwhile for your money and the management company is active in maintaining and improving the building. If they are just taking the money, helping themselves to a huge slice as a management fee and not actually doing anything useful to earn it then I would think twice tbh. You can remove a management company but it's a hassle and requires the cooperation of the other owners. The biggest problem I found with owning a flat is that when something needs doing you always have one or two owners who 'can't be bothered' or just bury their heads in the sand and hope the issue resolves itself (which it won't.) We had a problem with the lease on the flat I owned and it took over two years to sort out due to other owners dragging their feet.

In short, make sure everything is in order and being run properly before buying, then the management fee/service charge is worth it.
Click to expand...


:agree:

Very much to the point and good points here :thumbs:
 
ground rent / service cost is £2000 a year where i live, but i rent so i dont have to pay any of that.
council tax is £230 a rip off month here (in London).

if you live on your own you should get a discount on c-tax
 
badgerbaiter said:
council tax is £230 a rip off month here (in London).
Click to expand...

All can say is :eek: i'm paying £126 a month for a 4 bed detached house up here, £250 for a flat is utterly crazy, at least you can see where the money for the Olympics is coming from :bonk:
 
wack61 said:
All can say is :eek: i'm paying £126 a month for a 4 bed detached house up here, £250 for a flat is utterly crazy, at least you can see where the money for the Olympics is coming from :bonk:
Click to expand...

sorry, i got that a bit wrong
its £230 a month, but you pay for 10 months a year... i dont really get the point in it but there ya go.

you would think at that price, though, that they could sort out cardboard and green glass themselves in the recycle bins.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top