What are the downsides to buying a flat rather than a house ?

[Lardlizard]

Never bought a flat before but considering it

[tectonicplates]

Yes, do bear in mind that some flats come with a share of freehold. This is more common in small blocks of 4-6 flats, often found in converted houses but also purpose-built ones.

It's easier than it used to be to do a leasehold enfranchisement, i.e. where all the leaseholders get together and collectively buy the freehold, but it only works if all the people want to do it and there isn't one household who deliberately tries to block it for some reason.

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Share of freehold can come with a load of issues too- petty bureaucracy and meetings.

[Lardlizard]

Wow, so many more things to consider, thjngs I hand thought of so thank you

[nettytree]

We owned a flat that had a water leak from the flat above. Then we had a leak in our flat. Copper pipes in concrete. They just eroded. In the 9 flats at least half had the same problem. So very high buildings insurance added on to the already rip off service charges.

[Lardlizard]

I think I’d rather go for a smaller house then tbh
Thanks so much for The benefit of all yours experience
We are hoping. To get some sort of small holiday place maybe 🤞🏻

[BillyAndTheSillies]

Loved living in a flat, we weren't in a block though which made a difference. We bought a Victorian purpose built maisonette with a shared garden and private entrance so no communal space arguments.

The lease extension was expensive, but when we did it it meant our ground rent reduced to something silly like £1 a year and there were no service charges.

But, our downstairs neighbour was a pain and if we lived there during lockdown we'd have struggled because she was on the ground floor so would commandeer the garden even though it was shared and made our lives a misery towards the end before she moved out. It got to the point where DH and I wouldn't have visitors over because she'd just text barrels of abuse about noise. It would genuinely just be us and another couple watching a film and having dinner and she'd act like we were filling the house with 1000's of people. Our next set of neighbours became great friends.

[AngeloMysterioso]

Depends on the flat really.

Our old flat was literal hell- new build, south facing floor to ceiling windows so whenever the sun shone or the mercury rose above tepid the place turned into a greenhouse. Last summer the thermostat didn’t go below 30° for several weeks. It was built cheaply so we had all sorts of problems, we had shitty downstairs neighbours whose weed smoke came straight into our windows. The kids from all the buildings used to scream from dawn til well past dusk.

Our current flat is lovely- in a converted house, the ground rent isn’t too expensive and all the owners are part of the management company so we don’t have to deal with anyone else. We’ve got our own little garden, our upstairs neighbours can be a bit noisy occasionally but are generally very nice. We don’t open the windows but that’s more because we don’t want loads of bugs coming in!

[JanewaysBun]

I would get a flat over a house but I live in ££ SW London so ...

-/+ Neighbours - can be annoying however ours are strictly controlled my our manageme t people (e.g. you can be forced to sell if you let you flat out on air bnb)

• Fees are £££
  

• feels a bit safer as more than 1 door to get through / concierge
  
• concierge can receive Amazon!
  

• less space to renovate and expand although my friend built over a roof and created an extra bedroom!
• car not right outside
• no private garden / + gardeners do It for you!
• SERVICE CHARGE
• if you change your window you have to erect scaffolding

+ no chuggers!

• sometimes gym/pool
• big things can take a while to get fixed

[FizzyPink]

We live in a flat and I will never buy one. We’ll stay here longer so that we can afford a house rather than move out now and buy another flat.

We’re ground floor and do have a garden but it’s overlooked by our upstairs neighbours who love to lean out their windows and watch us. It’s ex council and they’re all a lot older and have lived here forever and seem to think they own the block. We’re very considerate and never make noise in the garden but they constantly complain about how selfish we are using our garden
Interestingly we’ve never complained about upstairs dog running around at 1am or their son who likes to hammer at 6am.
We also had a lovely surprise the other day when the neighbours two floors above us who have a balcony which overhangs our garden, decided to give it a good scrubbing, dumping all the dirty water over my grey garden sofa!

Plus the ground rent charges and any communal maintenance and if someone in the block decides to play music until 7 in the morning, everyone hears it!

[whereistherum]

I live in a flat and at the moment, our main problem is noise.

I think because we have all been cooped up, its alot more noticiable, but slamming doors. Christ its fucking annoying, I think the neighbour in the downstairs flat is not well at the moment, because we have been woken up twice now with her screaming in the garden.

You always feel like you have to keep your children quiet because if you can hear them, you know they can hear you.

Having said all of this I would much rather live in a house far away from everyone, so it could just be me

[Spidey66]

My flat is similar to this one, though this is Walthamstow in East London and I'm in North London. So no communal areas, an upstairs but no downstairs neighbours, and a small garden. (Ok yard.)

There are no service charges and no management company.

The only drawback is the lease. Long, long story, but to cut it short, the freeholder died 20 years back, about 4 years after moving in, and we've never actually been formally told who owns the freeholder is, and never been asked for ground rent since then. We really need to sort the lease out, as it's a legal nightmare at the moment.

[Spidey66]

"Who the freeholder is",

[tectonicplates]

@Spidey66 Does the Land Registry not know stuff like that?

[Pipandmum]

Neigbours above, below, besides. Limiting what you can do. Lack of privacy.

[Spidey66]

[quote tectonicplates]@Spidey66 Does the Land Registry not know stuff like that?[/quote]
I did say it was a long story......

We originally bought the flat under shared ownership (at the time you could buy property on the open market and approach the HA). As i said, the freeholder died-we were told by the man upstairs as obviously the freeholdre owned the freehold for his flat too. We waited and waited to hear from new freeholder but nothing.

In 2011 my mother died and we used the inheritance to buy out the HA and of course the lease came up. We told the spicito we hadn't been approached for ground rent for years and had no idea who it was.. Our solicitor tracked the freeholder via the land registry. The freeholder said we'd not paid for years, and said they now wanted it. They were given short shrift by the solicitor, who said they can only claim for 6 years back rent and even then have to provide evidence they've asked for it, which they couldn't.

That was several years back, so while we then got a name, the freeholder has yet to approach us directly with a request for ground rent. Apparently, it's down to them to chase it up with us....apart from one request to our solicitor, they've done nothing and haven't contacted us at all.

[Bimbopbap]

Good way of getting on the property ladder. If you can afford it, garden flat (beware damp if its a basement flat), lots of light, large windows, balcony, communal gardens, living on top floor (no feet above), nice view, new-ish build, an extra room to grow into, all make a difference. Low energy costs (newer build), no need to worry about maintenance.

Cons-people who chuck their furniture in the bin area and it gets added to the service charge for every one to pay, communal parking enforcement can be a source of tension, problem neighbours (esp. on bank holidays, when weather is hot), creeping service charge.

[CorianderLord]

People above and below you make noise complaints.

Generally (not always) less outside space. We have a terrace but everyone else just has a communal seating area.

You can't leave a spare key in the garden because your building mates may try to rob you/ let in a robber (personal exp)

Service charge - we own outright but £2k a year goes on this.

No parking.

[thesnailandthewhale]

Communal rubbish bins ... one of our neighbours would literally wait for the binmen to empty them then run downstairs with 4 bin-bags and half fill them up again, meaning everyone else could only put a carrier bags worth of rubbish in a week or have to go to the tip.
Best thing about my house when I moved was having my own bin and recycling bin :)

[EducatingArti]

To be honest, I think antisocial behaviour problems can be as bad in terraces as in flats. Noise and weed smoking type problems can be as bad. If you have a decent management company with flats at least you have someone who can address some of this.

[HathorX]

Cons:

• lower floor flats can be noisy, upper floor flats can be baking hot
• Deliveries can be difficult.
• Neighbours' noise and intolerance of your noise
• Lack of parking
• Children toppling out of upper floor windows is a bigger risk, apparently
• poor conversion of houses into apartments
• lack of parking
• no opportunity to extend the property
• sometimes a lack of storage space (eg shed, garage, attic)
• carting all your heavy shopping upstairs if you are not on the ground floor
• sometimes hard to find somewhere to store a bicycle or a pram
• people making a mess in communal areas
• inheriting badly funded communal property management accounts (eg money not set aside for major essential repairs, meaning you suddenly have to fork out thousands to repair a problem with the roof)

[barberousbarbara]

I've vowed to never live in a flat again after a previous experience, which included:

-we were ground floor so used to hear the front and rear entrance doors slamming whenever someone came in.

• People buzzing our door to be let in for other flats or, even worse, knocking on the window because they could see we were in.
• We got flooded twice from the flat upstairs.
• Communal bins that nobody but me put out for emptying.
• Allocated parking but anyone parked anywhere they fancied.
• The tiled floors in the communal area meant ever sound was amplified, which was hell when the top floor occupants would have screaming rows.

The list goes on.......

I'm fortunate enough that when I need to buy I was able to move 5 miles away and buy a 2 bed freehold house for less than the cost of a flat (moving from a city to a rural village).

[KitKatastrophe]

Neighbours can be really hit and miss with a flat and if you have bought it's not easy to move if the neighbours turn out to be a nightmare. Our upstairs neighbours had hard floors and a dog so you could hear it scattering around all the time. Also they used to have massive screaming matches in the middle of the night.

Outdoor space is limited and/or shared, unless it is a garden flat which presumably demands a premium.

You cant extend

[thebabessavedme]

we downsized 2 years ago to a first floor flat in a converted industrial building, we love it! we have a parking space (we own it) and the cellar has been filled with dedicated storage cages for each apartment so its kind of like having loft space for suitcases/xmas decs etc.

the management company is owned and run by all the leaseholders so we have a say as to repairs etc

I did miss outside space during lockdown but its just the 2 of us so we got by

[willowandsage]

I think it really depends.

I live in a maisonette which has an upstairs and downstairs flat, purpose built and have no issues with noise whatsoever. I have the upstairs, have my own garden/garage. Lease is 960 years, no service charge and 12.60 a year ground rent!

Have to walk round the back to put the bins out which is irritating, but really don’t have any gripes with it. Find one level living really lovely with a toddler, and flats here sell really easily.

Wanted to offer another viewpoint! We’re lucky we have nice neighbours but I assume it would be the same with a terraced house anyway, luck of the draw!

[TazMac]

@Lardlizard

Cladding too. Some flats are now impossible to sell to buyers who require a mortgage.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8616399/amp/Red-tape-nightmare-stops-millions-selling-homes.html