The Lemon Fool

A vivid warning of the potential hazards of buying a flat from a developer who is perhaps less than exemplary - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/con ... -1.4509830

Never mind buying from a developer, a flat whose freehold is in the hands of Mafia interests could be a whole lot worse. Only ever buy leasehold if you're sure the freeholder's interests are aligned with yours, or perhaps if it's leasehold-in-name-only with peppercorn rent and no service charge.

Back in the '80s, the then-government tried to legislate against this sort of thing. Of course the mafia interests ensured the legislation was scuppered with loopholes for them to avoid any real impact. But it did drive many freeholders including legitimate developers to sell up ahead of the legislation giving leaseholders a "right of first refusal", and of course the buyers back then were indeed the mafia.

Clitheroekid wrote:A vivid warning of the potential hazards of buying a flat from a developer who is perhaps less than exemplary - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/con ... -1.4509830

You'd have thought that at least some of the residents in such luxury flats would be aware of Collective Enfranchisement and/or the Right to Manage....

mc2fool wrote:

Clitheroekid wrote:A vivid warning of the potential hazards of buying a flat from a developer who is perhaps less than exemplary - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/con ... -1.4509830

You'd have thought that at least some of the residents in such luxury flats would be aware of Collective Enfranchisement and/or the Right to Manage....

I am not sure the majority of owners of new build luxury London flats [Deletion] are that bothered about the service charges.

Mostly they seem to leave them empty as a cash store of increasing value - or at least most of the £2 to £5m flats my London office overlooked were for some years after completion of the building.