Victorian maisonnette : what are the drawbacks?

[lilyannofpembleton]

I am looking at purchasing a ground floor maisonette in a victorian conversion. The flat is a 2 storey (bedrooms on ground floor, living areas on top floor). The upstairs maisonette has the same configuration. The seller is selling the flat with the building freehold. The flat I am looking at has been recently renovated, new piping, new plasterwork, new bathrooms and kitchen.

Although the flat looks great, I am concerned about a few things:

• my responsabilities as the freeholder and external maintenance costs (would this include roof maintenance as well?)
• the extent of the renovation. Whilst is it great to have everything new, was this done because there was an issue? Does that mean that the flat above is likely to have an issue too which could affect the flat i am looking at buying?

-living in a Victorian building. It would be my first time living in an old building. Any drawbacks to consider?

Am I right to be concerned? Anything else I should think about as I am considering this purchase? Anyone with experience living in a similar property?

Squeaky floorboards. Transference of food cooking smells, cigarette smoke etc via floor boards. Shared entrance can be source of disputes. Big bills when roof needs fixing. All these are issues friends have encountered. But the pluses are usually nice room dimensions and period features.

I have lived in the top floor flat (well, 1st and 2nd floors above a gff occupied by someone else) and noise would be the first thing. It would depend on the work done when the building was split but in my old place this was not done to take into account the noise between flats. The downstairs neighbour complained he could hear our fridge humming above his bedroom, and about us walking about. Landlord eventually put in thicker carpet and underlay to living room and halls. However downstairs neighbour was a drummer and it was like he was playing his drums in the same room as us.
I can't help you with the freehold part but in a past leasehold property the contract was that the external maintenance costs were split 50\50 but arranged by the freeholder.

I’d never live in a Victorian conversion again, unless I’d done the conversion myself. I’ve never lived in one which didn’t have squeaky joists, poor sound and heat insulation, and difficult plumbing. But they do look pretty and if you’re reasonably tolerant of the above, you can live with it.

Even if the renovation was done because of an issue (what do you mean? A leak? Damage?) then surely it’s a good thing? Nobody really renovates to a good standard and doesn’t fix the issue first - plus it would be picked up by the surveyor if it was a cover up job.

Regarding owning the freehold: your obligation as freeholder is to ensure the structure of the building. In reality, you’d discuss any maintenance work with your neighbour, agree the works and split the bills as they arose. It’s almost the same as having a share of freehold except you have the extra responsibility of organising repairs and maintenance and keeping accounts; but also the potential profit of ground rent and charging for a future lease extension (though with upcoming changes to leaseholds, this will mainly disappear.)

I lived in an upper maisonette in a Victorian conversion and it had definite problems:

• could hear front door slamming constantly
• could hear downstairs neighbours clearly, especially if they were in the garden or playing music
• could smell smoking
• whilst the livingroom for us was large and bright, the bedrooms were not, perhaps because of the split floor configuration?

So a lot of the above will be neighbour-dependent. I think you're in a more vulnerable position in terms of noise if you're downstairs, especially if they decide to not have carpet.

We paid for all roof repair, and downstairs paid for work to the shared hallway and front door. We never had any problems or arguments about maintenance costs, we just each did our bits voluntarily.

Make sure you've got the most comprehensive buildings insurance you can find if you are the sole freeholder or things could get very expensive for you.

If the flat above is two storey, bare in mind the noise of kids running up and down the stairs! Our upstairs neighbours kids used to (as kids do) jump from the 4th or 5th step down onto the floor and it felt as if the ceiling was going to cave in with each jump. We had a bedroom above ours and they would leave their phone on the floor charging, so their alarm was our alarm. I wouldn’t ever do it again.