repairs to lift in block of flats

[berniecuddles]

hi all
my mother and father and myself brought our council flat about 20 yrs ago ( im married now and don't live there) and each year my parents pay �1000 maintenance to the council towards costs of maintenence to the block of flats which they live in, they are both in their 70s and have recieved a letter from the council stating that the 2 lifts in the block need to be overhauled and the cost is going to set back for each person who owns there own flat in the block over �5000 each whilst council tennants pay noyhing towards it, surely this can't be right when they are paying �1000 maintanence already, has anybody else had this problem and where do they stand they can't afford that sort of money as they are only on pension the council has offered them a loan,they don't need all this at there age can anyone help me! how could they pay back a loan at there age it's ridiculous!!

[themas]

This is one of the problems of buying ex-council flats in blocks. Over time they are likely to need a lot of expenditure on repairs. When they bought the flat the lease will have included a provision that they had to pay a service charge, which will include a proportion of the cost of repairs. You need to look at the lease to see the exact requirements. The Council should be sending them an annual breakdown of the costs which have been incurred, and this should reconcile to the amount they have paid each year.

There is legislation covering what landlords have to do if large expenditure will be coming about. Look at www.lease-advice.org & phone their helpline, but you will probably find the Council has followed all the legal steps properly.

Some Councils allow people to pay off these large sums over a fairly lengthy period without adding interest, but this is at their discretion and not a legal requirement.

You could contact your parents local councillor and see if they can help, but unless there is something wrong with the Council's calculations I suspect that eventually they will have to pay.