Buying a flat that had a severe fire in the flat below

[lalah20]

Hello all,
After one fallen through purchase and many viewings I am starting to lose hope buying a flat. I put in an offer on a nice 2 bed Victorian flat and my offer was accepted.
My solicitor has obtained documents from the freeholder and in the LPE1 it mentioned that there is a fire damage claim still pending. In may 2025 there was a fire in the flat that is directly below the one im buying. After looking at some news articles the fire was pretty bad, it took an hour for firefighters to put out the flames and the person inside the flat was rushed to hospital.
The insurance invoice shows that in 23-24 the insurance was about £286 and for 24-25 it jumped to an astronomical £1100.
Not only that, there are section 20 works scheduled to take place and will cost £4000 per leaseholder.
Had a L3 survey and the surveyor noticed that the flat below the one I'm buying has been boarded up and there is soot around the windows.
Would you bother at all with continuing the purchase? I guess the sellers are desperate to wash their hands of this flat otherwise they'll have to cough up lots of money. Any repairs not covered by insurance will probably be paid for by leaseholders too. It's likely my flat has suffered some structural damage (joists and load bearing walls etc) due to the fire. If the hike in insurance premium is temporary and the current owners pay for all repairs I guess I wouldn't mind continuing. Also how long would a claim like this take to be settled- large scale fire that happened in May 2025?

Gosh, I’d just walk away from that. Too many unknowns. Sorry OP.

True. Might make it really hard to sell in the future

what period of time does 24/25 cover? Is it the financial year? Because the increase in insurance is very concerning in and of itself, but if it increased so much before the fire even happened, which you say is May 2025, and therefore in the 25/26 period, there’s something very fishy there IMO.

It’s also of concern that you weren’t aware that the flat below was boarded up and that it was the surveyor that noticed. Was this concealed from you when you viewed it?

I’d be running a mile from this one.

Walk away. You have no idea of the extent of the damage.

Cost aside that you may be liable for will be the inconvenience of any building works that have the potential to cause significant disruption.

You may also find there is a lingering fire smell if the flat below isn’t properly gutted and fixed.

would there be water damage too

The hike in insurance won't be temporary. No one knows how significant the damage is or how disruptive (and potentially damaging) future repairs might be. It sounds like a nightmare. Would you buy a car that had been in a serious crash and hadn't been deemed roadworthy yet? Walk away.

Yep - it wasn't mentioned at all. Only came to light from my solicitor sending me the LPE1. I guess I'd better pull out asap before I rack up even more fees

Walk away. too many potential issues and headaches and arguments with somebody else's insurance company. Interesting the vendor is trying to sell now and before it's all resolved - that itself is a red flag for me.

Best to walk away from this one. Good luck 🤞

I’d stay well away from this one.

Have you viewed the property in person? Just wondering how the boarded windows and soot wasn’t visible then?

Exactly. Very odd.

It's the flat below that had the fire. It's a basement flat and it's windows are only visible from the rear of the property - estate agent didn't show me around the back of the property

You’ve got to pass on this one.
What if the floors need replacing? What if that £4K ends up being £8k?

As someone who is very experienced in property - I’d be cutting my losses and walking away immediately. No second thoughts.