Share of the freehold

[Melboy]

Congratulations Grampa. That was a long drawn out purchase time!

Purchase was somewhere on the South coast wasn't it?

[Richlist]

Peoples opinions tend to be formed based on experience.....hence the negative comments about managing agents. My experience has, in the main, been only positive.

I pay a reasonable, tax deductible, monthly or annual fee in exchange for knowing that lots of the stuff I would normally have to do myself is being handled satisfactorily. I am then free to go do the things that I want to do. I have a lot of flats, all leasehold and most are handled by various managing agents/ freeholders. They deal with the day to day stuff, are easy to contact, react appropriately & in a timely manner if asked to deal with repairs, maintenance or problems. They tend to be very good at collecting service charges including dealing with late/none payers, have lots of expertise in buildings maintenance and housing & company law. Seems very good value for money to me.

One of my sons, who has been a leaseholder for 7+ years recently bought a freehold house. It came as something of a shock to him to realise he had to arrange his own insurance, deal with roof repairs when storms took a couple of tiles off the roof, unblock his own guttering and stop a downpipe leak. Now he has to consider that the outside needs redecorating this year and that's his responsibility also. Service charges may be a drain on disposable income but the alternative isn't always attractive to everyone.