We own an ex council flat - bought on the private market so at full price five years ago. It was all we could afford and we pushed ourselves to the limit. We sold it to a cash buyer recently as it was a really hard sale - most first time buyers said they didn't like 'the neighbourhood'. We aren't snobs and couldn't have cared less about the 'idea' of the neighbourhood and actually it's worked out that mostly we have had lovely neighbours! Anyway, it was a hard sale and we got 15K knocked off our asking price.
Now two months on, the management pack has come in and the f*king council has out of fking nowhere put in costs of 70K for the roof, 12K for redecoration (both per block) and 6K for electrics (per property). We had no f*king idea about this!!!!! No letter, nothing, first we heard of it was in the management pack. I called the council up 5 months ago when we first put it up for sale and they said nothing was on the horizon...I called up the other day and they said 'well, things change, that's life'!!!!!!!!!
WTF, I am so angry, our buyer has pulled out, we are desperately trying to beg them to come back. The works are scheduled for five years time so way in the future and they are 'proposed' so might not even happen but we've offered 10K off the asking price just to entice our buyer back - this is how much the share would be for all these works for our flat. We have to increase our mortgage for the place we are buying to do this - we have found our dream home which is why we are so desperate. This is a major financial hit for us and I feel sick to my stomach.
I feel like we are paying for works:
- Five years down the line that may not even happen
- Will get no benefit from it as our buyer will benefit from the new roof
And basically been completely shafted by the council and our buyers. And our f*king useless solicitor wasn't aware of anything 'untoward' in management pack so didn't even help us with any of this - we heard the buyer was pulling out through our f*king agent!!
Does anyone have experience with selling an ex-council flat and this stuff come up? I never cared about the 'stigma' of them but now I realise why people say avoid - as they are deceptively costly - we've spent far more than we would if if we'd bought a privately owned flat.
I'm devastated, I know this is not an AIBU as such but posting for advice, anyone with any experience please reply, thank you