Buying an ex - LA flat

[BeagleMum1]

Hi what are the pitfalls of buying an ex LA flat in a council block? I've found a lovely flat, a good price but I'm concerned about future repairs to the block and how this works in practice? Could I potentially be hit with huge bills?

Assuming it's leasehold, you will need to check the details. I think usually you pay a fixed amount monthly to contribute to the upkeep of shared spaces and things like the roof.

Seemingly so.
There was a radio 2 programme discussing this recently and the private owners were being hit with a bill for ££££££ for repairs, many of which they felt were unnecessary, overpriced and shoddily done.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/31/owners-ex-local-authority-homes-bills-thousands

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/no-extra-help-falkirk-home-28349943

Also a lot of councils re develop they’ve just compulsory purchased a load of flats near us back

This doesn't sound good 😞

A friend of mine owned a flat in a ha block. She had to pay a hefty service charge and also for a portion of repairs that were done to the entire building. She also had big issue getting the ha to pay for water damage done to her property by the ha tenant living above. She sold and moved in the end.

I don't think they increase in value as much as non local authority flats. My friends daughter bought and refurbished an ex local authority flat. Sold it a few years later and got back just what she paid for it, took ages to sell. This was in a rising market.

You can potentially be hit with big repair bills for any property, ex LA or private leasehold.
The service charges with private property tend to be higher, but the leaseholders do often have more input, and can challenge improvement works ( not essential repairs).
If you buy a flat in a block which is still mostly owned by the LA their tenants can push for improvements ( security doors, extra caretaker hours, etc), which cost them trivial extra amounts of rent, but a significant additional sum in service charges for leaseholders.
I found the LA quite fair in charging for major repairs. They give lots of notice and often the charge is not actually made until 2-3 years after the first notification. In my LA if you occupy the property ( ie not a landlord) if you can’t pay they will put a legal charge on the property so the charge is paid when it’s finally sold rather than pursue court action, etc.
From reading previous replies it does seem that some LA’s are better than others. If you check with your LA there might be a leaseholder’s association and you could get some useful insight from them.

I have an ex LA flat- 1900s mansion block
80% of the flats are privately owned
very low service charge and amazing service- full time caretaker and maintenance staff, bins collected daily even at weekends
any major works can be paid over time (not had any)
Cant be rented on airbnb (massive bonus) as a minimum 3 month rent
service charge less than one third of the private flats in the road
They are cheaper (but still up to a million). Hold their value well. Low council tax as well.

The ones in the images above are all non standard construction flats.

Avoid any leasehold. Local authority is the worst of the worst.
They don't even need to tender for major works, just expect you to pick up the tab, and they're not known for value for money.

Case in point I currently have scaffolding up against my flat. Its been there for 2 months apparently to allow workers to repoint the brickwork.
2 months on, and there's still no repoiniting being done, just 2 months of scaffold hire whilst expecting leaseholders to pay for it.

And they never informed me they were putting scaffolding up. I just woke up one morning in March to a man on my 3rd floor balcony looking into my bedroom 🤬

I bought my council flat, they charge around £700 per year for repairs, ground rent and service charges. In the first year of owning it, they replaced all the windows which cost £900, but I knew this was planned when I bought it. They have a scheme for paying in installments if you can't afford a repairs bill. They notify me of all pending works and any contracts going out for tender, which I can then nominate companies for, although I have never done this! It's fine and works for us.