ex-council houses to buy - any issues to consider?

[CatAndHisKit]

I'm looking to buy atm and had to settle on lowish offer for my house so now have to downgrade my budget.
In budget, it's between a 2-bed nice Victorian ones or 3-bed ex-council, the one I'd consider is 60s-70s built, a terrace but in a good area.

Just not sure if there ar hidden issues with these - are they built lerss solidly? Tiny shower room, would I need any permissions from council to enlarge the bathroom (even though they don't own the house, I assume they own the patch).

Also are any searches to be done are more comlicated than with a usual private ;andord owning the land?
TIA

*complicated, and no 'are' again.

If it's a Free Hold then the council don't own the ground. There may be covenants on external changes but any properties can be impacted by such.

To be honest I'd never buy a leasehold.

Is it freehold or leasehold?

ex-council from that date probably as solidly built as you could dream of, and good shaped rooms

and if a private-buy as ex-council, it's all yours

I bought a 1975 ex-council house. It is very well built and there are no issues. It's freehold and the council have no more say over what I do with the insides of the house than normal, as far as I'm aware.

My surveyor had looked at two other houses for me, both older properties in more desirable locations that did have significant issues, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this one!

My first home was a 60s built ex council house. We were just saying at dinner tonight that that house was better, in many ways, than any we've lived in since. Sensible, useable sized and shaped rooms, big built in cupboards in every room, very solidly built and a decent but manageable sized garden.

Obviously your solicitor will check but I think you'll find you'd own the land, we certainly did and issues re renovation permissions are no different to any other house you own.

If it's in a block and you are a leaseholder and the council decides to do work on the whole block you could be billed for your share of the work. So if there were say 12 flats in the block you could get 1/12 of the bill. However you should be able to find out if any major work is planned

You might have neighbour issues.

On the plus side you will have decent sized rooms and probably good cupboard space.

Oh it's not a block....I would say you would get better value for your money.

I bought (and subsequently sold) an ex-council flat. Leasehold. Marvellous property. Solid and spacious. As it was an ex-council property within a council block, the council were responsible for a lot of repairs which was great tbh.

I don't think I could move any internal walls, but probably best to check the leasehold conditions.

It's freehold - but a terrace so shared walls with other houses which confuses me (and I don't know of next door is still council or private now).
INeedNewShoes - good to hear about your 70s house. I do like the room proportions - sensible as pp day, BUT the shower room is tiny and there is a separate toilet next door which is silly imo - having to go next door to wash your hands, and absolutely no space for cabinets in hte shower room.

I've never lived in 60s/70s houses so I also wonder how thin are the walls, what's soundproofing like? It' not a noisy estate by the looks of it - three rows of terraces and a separate small block, but I was only ther in daytime.
But thanks all, overall sounds positive! And good to know no extra searches are needed.

A lot of the "first generation" council homes are now being upgraded as part of the Better Homes (?) programme.

Family members have had all windows, kitchens and bathrooms replaced regardless of state. My lot also got garden fencing done too but not sure if that was part of it or one-off. Roofs are next on the list as they are coming to the end of serviceable life and the council do them all in bulk.

Suggest research on this type of major works for your potential house.

Buzz yes that's the thing - if the roof needs to be done, how do they deal with it if a terrace of about 6-7 houses are varied in terns of private ownership and still council?
Do you mean council will make you contribute as private owner whether you want to or not? That's the sort of thing I was somewhat worried about.
In this case, windows/doors look uniform already- but that's the thing, they need to keep it uniform more or less (and fencing of gardens too).

(andwith renovations, what if the whole terrace is now privately owned but another estate terrace next to it is not?)

If it is leasehold and all private you will still have to contribute to the costs of any communal work eg outside painting roof repairs lift renewal along with the other leaseholders. If Council owned and you are the only one or one of a few who are private and Council decide to do a new roof you will have to contribute even though the Council tenants do not have to. As others have said, this is why many people have decided not to buy Council flats
Remember most of the Council properties were sold under Right to Buy because the Councils could not afford the repairs so they got rid of the problems. Repairs will always remain an issue in Leasehold Council or private.
With freehold there are fewer problems but without being snobby ex Council DEPENDING WHERE IT IS LOCATED tends to be a bit cheaper.
Check it out. End of terrace is better but you can get difficult neighbours anywhere
Your last question Where a C terrace is among private terraced the C will be responsible for that terrace only and the private one only for themselves NOT THE COUNCIL ONE AS WELL

A dd bought one (FH) the space for the money is brilliant and it’s solidly built. She did discount ex council houses in some areas because there was very obviously anti social behaviour - but IMO they can often be a very good buy.
Previous owners of hers had lived there for 60 years! - and had bought it from the council in 1971 - so such sales were evidently going on well before Thatcher’s right to buy.

ex council is probably more solidly built than privately built places as the council would be needing to think of the long term maintenance costs rather than just making money on the initial sale.

for a terraced property there is unlikely to be any large scale maintenance project you are railroaded into - this can certainly happen in apartment blocks. if the council are doing roof refurbishment along the whole row they will plan to miss out your property by default. if you are lucky they may notify you and give you the opportunity to opt in to get yours done at the same time which will save you at least a thousand pounds.

a common issue in some design of council house - often the slope of the roof starts immediately above the upstairs windows so all upstairs rooms have a foot of diagonal sloping ceiling above window level. if there is cavity wall insulation to the sides and loft insulation above, then this section of sloping ceiling will be a cold spot where there is no insulation and that means moisture will condense there and is likely to cause problems with mold. adding insulation is certainly possible to resolve this.

Op. There is no difference if the other houses are council or privately owned, if the work Ie roof needs doing it needs doing, in either instance clearly you can refuse, but if your refusal impacts on other properties then the other parties can seek legal recourse irrelevant of who they are.

The fact it’s ex council is irrelevant, it’s about it being a terrace. For your own property you need to just comply with normal planning permissions like any other property, for things that impact your neighbours, again it’s the same, you get to decide but any refusal that causes problems to others could land you in trouble.

That’s also the same in a semi.

My first house was a ex-council mid terrace. It was a lot more solid than my current house and had bigger rooms.
I could hear the neighbours going up the stairs and coughing etc but I guess you probably can in most terraced houses.
As long as it's not a problem neighbourhood I would generally say that buying an ex council house is usually good value for money.

We nearly bought an ex-council small estate of 10 houses. It was the neighbours that put us off. You could clearly pick the 4 still council run ones. They just looked like the stereotypical council house - several cars parked in bits on drive and 100s of kids.

House was a bargain and needed loads of work but on the various visits we just couldn’t cope with the state of the other houses.

I’ve bought an ex council house before, it wasn’t a problem. It was a good house, nice room sizes, garden etc. I think there’s a ceiling price to what people will pay for ex-council though, particularly where a lot of the estate is still a mix of owners and council tenants, so probably not worth doing expensive works as you won’t get your money back.

Buzz yes that's the thing - if the roof needs to be done, how do they deal with it if a terrace of about 6-7 houses are varied in terns of private ownership and still council?

Back in the early 2000s, I owned an ex council flat in a block of 6(2 flats x 3 floors). Like PP say, it was well built, solid walls, and massive rooms! 2 council tenants among 4 private owners. 1 of them was an absolute horror. Made all our lives misery and they did fuck all to rein her in.

Anyway - they proposed replacing the large windows in the stairwells. Nothing wrong with the windows particularly. I think just old (1960-70s)

I remember being absolutely terrified when they casually let me know my share would be 1/6 of around £20,000 for the works! Their justification was the cost of materials, plus labour, plus scaffolding for the duration. Thank god it went away - I think our robustly challenging them just made it a headache too far. The roof would be due under the BH programme so thank god I am not the owner now!

Do you mean council will make you contribute as private owner whether you want to or not?

Potentially - depends on the lease you have.
But more likely they will offer it at a slight discount so as to keep things simple. However I am not sure I'd want to buy a house that immediately needs the roof redoing in the first place.

And that's not to say the work will necessarily be high quality though - it is farmed out to contractors who are highly incentivised to get it done as fast as possible to keep within their project budget they put in as their tender.

I recently bought an ex council house, more 1950-60.
It's a fab house. It's in a rural village and I wouldn't have been able to afford the prices elsewhere. There are some council/housing association owned properties in the road and they've just done maintenance on the overhead electric supply. They just missed all the private owned properties out.

In fact, you can sometimes work out which houses are council still by looking for common repairs or replacements. Do some houses all have a newish roof of same design? Do some have newer windows, again of same design?

In answer to your question about the shower room. I did exactly what you're suggesting. Knocked the wall down between the separate loo and bath next door. Of course you wouldn't need to inform council!

I have an amazing, large back garden. It's the feature that sold the house to me. The road I live on has a lovely community feel. The only downside is it's not the prettiest of houses and I particularly dislike having a downstairs bathroom (seemed to be the norm round here at the time as lots of houses I looked at had the same).

I've not had to spend anything on maintenance type stuff yet. But I have done lots of improvements iyswim.