Would you move from a house to a flat?

[tigerbear]

Our situation:
Prob need to move in the next 18 months or so to be in catchment area of decent secondary schools for DD.
The houses in the vicinity of the schools we’re interested in are all a bit ‘meh’ for not very much. 3 beds from £650k upwards, ie bog standard semis for £650k, anything with the wow factor, upwards of £800k++
Having not considered a flat before, we’ve just viewed a 3 bed, 3 bathroom flat that’s almost double the size of our current house and is on market for £575k

Has anyone moved from a house to a flat - did you regret it/love it?
To put into context:

Current house we’re in:
986 sq feet
Quite ugly from outside - 60’s style
1 large master bedroom, 2 tiny second bedrooms (DD room really small eg 10x8)
Open plan living, eg kitchen, dining and lounge all in one
V small patio garden
V large communal gardens
Garage
Tiny bathroom, smaller than an average en-suite

Apartment we’ve viewed (basement flat but with lots of light, share of free cold)
Beautiful exterior, in a grand Georgian house
1,685 sq feet
Large master bedroom with large en-suite plus massive walk in wardrobe (wardrobe alone is 19x8)
Large room for DD (16x15)
2 extra bathrooms
Store room
Separate lounge and kitchen
Decent size 3rd bedroom
Large communal garden

Would you do it??

We live in a large Georgian flat. It’s great, no regrets. Do be mindful of any maintenance charges (a lot of these places charge an annual fee or similar).

Ah, yes, I emailed the agent a list of questions today, and did ask about service charges etc, but forgot to ask about the nature of the management of it, plus if there are any major works coming up.

@CrikeyYouDontWasteTime - no private garden, only communal. Good point re noise. We viewed on Sat mid morning when I guess a few people may have been out, so will try to do a second viewing at a different time of day.

I’ve gone from rented house to buying a flat, so not quite same. But, no regrets. Ours is Edwardian share of freehold mansion block. Agree you are dependent a bit on neighbours but ours have been great (also garden/basement flat). Solidly built so rarely hear anything. You’ll have a service charge and will of course have to split costs of fixes to roof just as much as the top flat pay towards the damp course and drains etc. I’ve always taken view that in a house you pay for both so why not in a flat. You could knock on neighbours doors and say you’re thinking of buying and want to ask about planned renovations etc, and get a feel for whether you think they’re a psycho or not!

Never. I did so previously, we’d been renting but the landlord had the house repossessed so we had to leave sharpish. Best thing around was a HUGE 4 bed maisonette in a big old house, 4 flats total. The actual flat was lovely but living there was a nightmare. 2 flats were rented out to temporary council accommodation and we had a stream of awful neighbours. At one point we were afraid to go into the hall. The guy downstairs threatened to knock me out of my 4 year old twins couldn’t learn to tiptoe. We had endless nightmares with people leaving communal doors open and finding people sleeping in the hall. The garden was a shit tip because the people at the back decided it was theirs to do as they pleased with, and despite the fantastic potential it was awful to live there.

We were unlucky, if the neighbours had been nice we could have a good time. But clearly for me I would never ever consider a flat again.

We moved from a 4 bed detached to a 2 bed flat in a coverted manor house 3 years ago and we love it. Our flat is much bigger than our old house, with 13 foot high ceilings, huge rooms and our own vaulted cellar. We pay £280 per month service charge and we run the management company between us all (we all share the freehold). We're quite a eclectic and in some cases comical bunch (a bit Dibley parish council) but we get things sorted in a fashion!

My advice; ask for a copy of the lease (this is important - ours doesn't allow any owner vans/sign written vehicles, doesn't allow laundry to be hung out etc), check out the service charge, enquire about management company, ask to see the latest accounts (a healthy bank balance is a good sign), find out who lives upstairs (we're groundfloor but upstairs is a quiet older couple who live abroad 7 months of the year). Is the building listed? What condition is the building in? (major works such as windows/roof could see service charge rocket, at least temporarily).

Nothing is ever perfect but, with some sensible checks, you should be able to suss out most potential issues.

Flat generally okay but basement flat, probably not. I'd worry about damp and daylight though I note you said it was bright.

What are the ceiling heights like?

Thanks for all the responses, really interesting to hear.
To answer PP questions, there doesn’t seem to be any smell of damp, but I guess you can never tell just from a first viewing. The exterior of the property looked in great condition too, no sign of damp etc
The ceiling height is fine, certainly no lower than what we have our in 60’s build house right now. It doesn’t seem like a basement flat, as there are windows both to the front and side of the living room and it’s very bright.

I think when we go for the next viewing, we’ll knock on a few doors and see if we can chat to people. I think there are only 3 other flats in the house - 2 one beds on the ground floor, and a maisonette on the first/second.
There aren’t any communal halls for the one we like, it has own entrance.