Thoughts on buying in the Dog Kennel Hill estate...

[Bluelagoon]

When we purchased our flat (a Victorian conversion) I was told by the estate agent that Southwark Council were the freeholder, this turned out not to be the case, but I'm actually pretty pleased reading this - Eek!

[Otta]

Southwark do seem to be particularly bad.

Not sure I like the tone of some posts which seem to suggest that you wouldn't want to buy because you might end up with some council tennants as your neighbours.

One thing you should really remember is that people don't tend to shit on their own doorsteps.

Not even *gasp* people living in council flats.

[uncleglen]

All labour councils are crap if you are one of their leaseholders.

[jennyb123]

I own a flat on a nearby council estate. I used to live there, then moved and have had tenants in for the last 6 years. Mostly its been fine. I have good neighbours on my corridor, and I've had good tenants too. It was always a nice place to live when I was there.

Re council charges: When I bought the place the seller told me the council had done all the major works he could think of, so I shouldn't be bothered by further major works for a while. However, they do cyclical repairs, I think every 8 years, and that is truly a blank check as they don't know what hidden problems they will find once the scaffolding is up. And they chose the same year (roughly) to refurbish the lift and sort out the drainage problems on the estate. So it was an expensive year. To make it worse, although they bend over backwards to help owner-occupiers with their payments, private landlords are supposed to pay the full whack as the bills roll in (because as we all know landlords are all fatcat millionaires who can fish out a wadge of ?1000 notes from their back pockets whenever asked). Then again, when I called them and explained my situation they allowed me to spread the payments over a year. The normal service charge is usually not too bad. However, one year the final bill was just about double the estimate, and another year I got several hundred pounds back from them!

However, if you think about a typical scenario of an old victorian house divvied up into flats, you get a different set of problems - people arguing over what does/doesn't need to be done, nothing being done at all, people not paying their share, neighbours being a nuisance or storing their stuff in communal parts etc. So just like in a council block, you might end up lucky, or you might not.

I think my flat has been a reasonable buy, it was well affordable at the time and has risen in value along with every other property in London, though maybe less than a Victorian flat would have.

It will always have a bit of a stigma attached as it's a council block and 5 floors high, and that will always be reflected in the buying and selling price. Having said that though I have had 3 sets of tenants and only 3 days' void period in 6 years, so it can't be that bad!

[uncleglen]

The year you got the rebate was probably when the Lib Dems/Tories had control!

[Blah Blah]

I never understand why people moan about the conditions of bying a local authority flat. Most tenants using right to buy get a massive discount on the market price. Everyone knows there are service charges and potential works charges attached. That is something to be factored when deciding to buy. People are breaking their backs to only just be able to afford to buy a property. What happens when interest rates go up (as they will sooner or later), or taxes go up, duty etc? People give themselves no leeway.

[Jeremy]

Otta Wrote:

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> Not sure I like the tone of some posts which seem

> to suggest that you wouldn't want to buy because

> you might end up with some council tennants as

> your neighbours.

I'm kind of with you there. Surely whatever property you buy, you can't really tell who you'll end up living next to.

[Designerjooles]

Sorry Otta - but i disagree with your last statement. I can't count the amount of times i've been past viewing tenants taking their dogs for a toilet break in the grounds of the DKH estate and not cleaning up after them...

[AJ3]

Designerjooles Wrote:

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> Sorry Otta - but i disagree with your last

> statement. I can't count the amount of times i've

> been past viewing tenants taking their dogs for a

> toilet break in the grounds of the DKH estate and

> not cleaning up after them...

And owner occupiers don't do this? Or private tenants?

[Designerjooles]

Perhaps AJ3 - my comment certainly wasn't a slight on the "type" of people that live on the estate. It was merely an observation that i have noticed because it was something i would struggle with.

[AJ3]

Designerjooles Wrote:

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> Perhaps AJ3 - my comment certainly wasn't a slight

> on the "type" of people that live on the estate.

> It was merely an observation that i have noticed

> because it was something i would struggle with.

Then I'm struggling to see the point of your post

[grace3]

As Brendan Behan said 'don't go there unless you have very good nostrils' he mean New York but.

[Crissy]

I'm familiar with the estates and they have improved considerably. A lot of tenants were moved out during some refurbishment.

Also, it depends which block you intend to buy/live.

Just check out you potential neighbours...

[Otta]

Blah Blah Wrote:

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> I never understand why people moan about the

> conditions of bying a local authority flat. Most

> tenants using right to buy get a massive discount

> on the market price.

But most people buying ex council places are not former council tennants using the right to buy. That ship largely sailed a while back, most places are on their second third or fourth private owner, so there are no great discounts.

[Blah Blah]

Maybe so Otta, but ex council flats are leasehold, come with services charges and potential maintenance costs. So you have to factor in whether you can afford that when buying. It comes back to my point that people are overextending themselves to buy property. They have to take responsibility for that. Complaining about a system, that has been in place since the right to buy scheme was dreamt up, is a red herring in my opinion.

[nxjen]

These days, if people didn't over-extend themselves they wouldn't be able to buy.

[Blah Blah]

That may be so, but it's not a solution. They are in fact helping to keep prices going up. The only way to bring prices down is for people to be realistic and not buy if they can't comfortably afford to do so. A shortage of first time buyers will being prices down. It always does.

[Mick Mac]

I think if you buy leasehold on a non council block you can hopefully assume that any works are necessary and on commercial terms.

I think what some people have said here is that the works doe on local authority managed blocks are not necessarily needed and are done to utilise council budgets and also they are not necessarily apportioned equally between council tenants and private owners.

If either of these things were true I'd avoid buying ex council.

[Blah Blah]

I don't know enough about it to know if those things are true Mick. Aren't local authorities tied into a decent homes scheme of improvements? Or am I wrong about that?

[midivydale]

OP, there is a law in place from 2015 which prohibits extornate service charges. Dont get me wrong they are still jot cheap but I think the cap is ?5k per 3yrs or something. Will check facts and come back to you.

our property had major works this year. Although not an estate but street property and I believe it will cost us quite abit but we have been able to budget accordingly.

I have lived in a leasehold flat for 9years nw and it is not all bad. Huge improvements in the last few years. It does, on occasion take alot of effort to get your voice heard if you have issues with standard of work or accuracy of bills but you can get issues resolved.

if you do go for it, team up with LAS and other organisations. Without their help I would have been lost in the david and goliath process at times.

i just wanted to say it is not all bad.

[Designerjooles]

AJ3 - the point was that people DO sh*t on their own doorsteps. I made the comment because i would find it very difficult living on the ground floor of a communal block where one of my neighbours decided to allow their dog to defecate outside my open windows every single day and not clean up after themselves. I was merely highlighting some of the possible difficulties that come from living in a communal block. Perhaps if you removed the chip off your shoulder you would have seen that.

[AJ3]

Designerjooles Wrote:

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> AJ3 - the point was that people DO sh*t on their

> own doorsteps. I made the comment because i would

> find it very difficult living on the ground floor

> of a communal block where one of my neighbours

> decided to allow their dog to defecate outside my

> open windows every single day and not clean up

> after themselves. I was merely highlighting some

> of the possible difficulties that come from living

> in a communal block. Perhaps if you removed the

> chip off your shoulder you would have seen that.

Yes people do and they do it in private blocks and social ones. There's no social distinction between arseholes

Oh and less of the 'chip on the shoulder' shit butt

[Designerjooles]

Ok. Truce accepted.