Selling - no sinking fund? Is this a concern?

[MrsKT123]

Hello,

We're selling our 2 bed leasehold flat and there is no sinking fund.

We've found a buyer and all is progressing well but have just found out they pulled out of another purchase previously as there was a lack of information on the management company / use of service charge etc.

This shouldn't be an issue for us as all of the management pack was available when we bought and we get an annual statement of what's been spent, however, our agent also mentioned in passing the other flat had no sinking fund when listing out the issues. We're now worried this could be an issue for our buyer.

Our solicitor flagged there was no sinking fund when we bought this but said they weren't concerned as the property was less than 10 years old (now 13 years old). It's 9 flats in what is a new build but looks like a large period house to fit in with the surrounding area.

I have a few questions I was hoping for some help with:

1. Would this put you off buying our flat completely?
2. How much would you expect the sinking fund to be in this circumstance given the flat is only 13 years old?
3. If you have a sinking fund for your flat, how much do you add into it each year?

Thank you!

1. No
2. I wouldn't expect a big sinking fund /any fund it's a new flat
3. My flat had no fund and it was never an issue

It was one of the things my DH and I looked at when we were buying as we had friends who'd been stung without one in the past. I don't know how much our fund is, it's taken as a portion of our service charges. We live in a grade 2 listed building which was converted into about 400 flats 15 years ago, I don't think having a newer flat would help either unless it's brand new.
It's not like it's something you can change so I'd try not to work myself up about it in your shoes.

Yes it would... It is out of warranty and the point of a sinking fund is to offset any future maintenance to the building fabric eg lifts, electrics, roof, heating, central boilers which should be replaced )serviced / replaced every 15 -25 years
So instead of paying 1/25th your purchaser will be paying just over 2/26th....or double the amount they should would have if a sinking fund had been in place from new.

Thank you so much for the responses!

We've spoken to the landlord who currently manages the building and it turns out they're in the process of handing management over to a management company who will be setting up a sinking fund going forward - hopefully this will be a positive thing for our buyer if they did have concerns.