To expect the neighbours to agree on minimum repairs

[ElbiTut]

It's a common problem, I am afraid, a freeholder not taking any care of the building.
It is a building of 6 flats, all owners living in the building. Some are not paying their service charge regularly so the freeholder took somewhat relaxed approach when it comes to maintenance. Basically all that gets covered is the building insurance and we always have zero money for the repairs.
The building is getting tired, the driveway resembles a jungle, and the common areas are like out of a horror movie.
When we stumble upon ppl and chat about it -everyone agrees that we should organise the painting by ourselves but noone does anything. When I went ahead and found a few quotes asking if we should go ahead and share cost - saying I am happy to organise it - noone is responding.

What are your experiences - for those that are leaseholders? How and do you ever get anything done?
I appreciate the times are tough when it comes to money but we are talking about the cost of less than 100 pounds per flat and it is more about people not being frank about them just not giving a toss...

Could you all tackle the drive way and do a clean up on that yourselves? It probably is maybe an expense that people don’t want to/ can’t afford to give at the moment? It’s crap though op we have the same here. Could you also reduce the costs further by just getting paint and painting the common area yourselves? Not sure if it would be allowed but if it is a money thing, a few people might be happier to contribute less money but more of their time?

I think YABU to expect people who don’t even pay their service charge to chip in for this.

Yes I totally understand that...but tbh noone wants to do anything. We did clean and cut the driveway a few times but stopped because noone else ever takes part. We will do it again, but for the painting etc...we both work full time, have kids, I don't have time to spare...noone wants to help out. They say find someone we'll chip in, and when I ask them to ok the works - radio silence:(