Retirement homes

Jane43- thats another type of housing i need and would love- but the over 55s only rule again, rules us out- even though i would be the tenant,my sons arent 'allowed' as theyre not 55! Also none of these places have more than 2 bedrooms at most- surely councils& housing associations should rethink these archaic rules? I realise that its so its a quieter environment for the other over 55s residents- but in our case (or indeed anyones who is in same circumstances) my lads are well behaved,quiet,non- drinkers/smokers and stay in mostly unless we all go anywhere together to see family,or go hospital appts etc. So not like most other singletons in their 20s, their health problems etc tend to mean theyre both homebodies who need a quieter life themselves.yet seemingly councils etc lump them in with other usual young men their age and we are dissallowed these type of homes,despite me needing them myself.

cfmp

The monthly fees are quite high but you also save on what you would pay on house and garden maintenance. In addition, you receive emergency support. You also have the use of a communal lounge and outdoor areas where residents regularly meet for chats. I absolutely not regret having moved into a retirement apartment. I was struggling with my large house and was getting very lonely and frightened in case I had a fall and couldn't contact anybody. Living in a retirement apartment often avoids having to go into a care home which would be much more expensive. My children know they are unlikely to make a profit when my apartment is sold, but if there are saving on not having to pay for a care home, they should still get some money once the apartment is sold, plus they will know that I was safe and happy there.

Totally agree with everything you say as my mum 90 has been in a retirement property for 11 years . She’s now housebound and has carers 2 a day . Being on one level , with alarm pull cords a manager on site ,and people around her , I feel happier than when she was living alone in a large 4 bedroom house .

Franbern- your place sounds great- if i had the money!😀

All of our situations are different. My cottage is only 2-up 2-down and very old. I don’t want it spoiled by adaptations.
My town is affluent and has a very high proportion of older people so there are lots of retirement homes. Service charges start at a quarter of my income.

Graunty7, you are a lovely son, putting your parents happiness and well being top of your list . Unfortunately there are selfish adult children who don't think as you do and that they are entitled to what their parents have worked for. If I had anyone that just assumed I would go short and struggle with my home to provide fore them I would leave what I had to charity.
Watermen please do what's best for you. Do not struggle with a home that is no longer suitable just to leave money to those who should put you first.

Our place is similar to Franberns. Its a 30 yr old development of 50 privately owned freehold (Scotland) flats (different sizes, one to three bedrooms, 2 baths) in blocks of either 4 or 6, set in glorious large grounds (woods, lake, rolling lawns, every flat has a lovely outlook. We pay a communal charge of £30-ish a month which covers the grounds maintenance . There's a residents management group ( elected volunteers) . The residents are either retired like us or affluent 30-40 ish.

Residents who need support make their own arrangements to employ carers, window cleaners, private cleaning, ironing, dog walking etc. The flats are well designed, beautifully built and fitted, and highly insulated; There is no through traffic so it's very quiet, peaceful. We have deer, ducks, red squirrels, birds in the garden; bus from the gate to town centre takes 10 minutes or you can walk it in half an hour. Pharmacy, two convenience stores , hairdresser, all within 10 minutes walk.

There are still some elderly residents who bought their flat new; the previous owner of ours lived in it to 100. Whenever one comes on the market they sell within days and prices have risen by 30% in the past five years.

My friend lived in a block of 16 flats, privately owned with its own management committee.

There were disagreements about money when some major work was needed on the roof. Three of the owners refused/couldn’t pay the amount needed in excess of the sinking fund. The sinking fund had been grossly underestimated because they all wanted low annual maintenance fees.

The person who generally did much of the admin work and had got estimates quit when he (unfairly) got most of the blame, nobody else wanted to take the role on. The top floor tenants had leaks every time it rained while it went to court.

It’s an arrangement that works brilliantly until it doesn’t.

Do you have a sinking fund butter and jam ? £50 a month seems incredibly low for maintenance.

Sorry £30.

M0nica

I know this is a digression but.....

Retirement flats seem to sell like hot cakes when they ae brand new and fresh from the developer, so why are those on the resale market so difficcult to sell. It doesn't make sense.

In the town we now live in there is one area, just at the top of the High Street that has become the Senior Living uarter. There are at least 3 retirement developments cheek by jowl and a 4th being built. Interestinglyy, severalmof these developments have houses as well as flats.

M0nica,I read somewhere that they keep building new homes and given the choice people always want to move into the new ones. I suppose the fact the second hand one is vacant means it's likely somebody died in it. Depressing.

Or perhaps that the homes that have been lived in have generally not been well maintained and look dowdy and need updating. Whilst the new ones don’t need anything to be done.

The catch being that they are then not maintained fir that persons lifetime and become the dowdy old ones needing work🤔

I googled and read that there are an estimated 10,000 retirement flats standing empty. If only legislation could limit the time period that fees need to go on being paid I’m sure more people would consider them. And that would release some family homes for purchase.

I don’t think fees are generally unreasonable for the services provided. But it’s certainly put me off to think that my children might have to go n paying fees for an indefinite period

My mother bought one - cost her just as much in increasing charges as renting. The support got less and less and when she fell I was just grateful I was there in less than half an hour by chance because she had been unable to raise the alarm folks not get help.
It took me a year to sell at less than she had paid for it and in all that time, I was stuck with the charges of nearly £40 per week.

Her neighbour told me that she rented hers because it was cheaper than buying as the heirs who owned it just wanted to cover their costs because it would not sell.

Talk to an estate agent and put your name on their list. They may help you look at places nearby. They will value your home too, you may be surprised.
Keep viewing Zoopla and Rightmove

My mother was in very nice private nursing home where she had to buy a debenture to occupy her room. She had dementia. They charged 6 months months service/basic care charge after she died as we were unable to sell the property in that time. £30k!!!
Sold it after about 2 years for slightly less than she paid.
She never wanted to be anywhere else and the staff who looked after her were lovely. What a rip off though

With regards to the so-called 'sinking funds' (silly name - we call it 'Emergency Fund' which is more realistic.
Anyway, a previous committee set this as £35,000 - which in my opinion is far too low. We keep our service charge (which includes ground rent as we are our own landlords), as low as possible. No garden area, but obviously all public areas are cleaned twice a week, painting and maintenance and insurance of those public areas and exterior of building and our small car park, all water is paid centrally, and we have a 24/7 arrangement with British Gas to give all boilers and CH an annual service, plus all parts replacement. Maintenance and care of our important lift cost quite a bit of money etc.

Last year we were hit with a double wammy, of requiring a new fire alarm system (plus a whole of new signage due to changes in the law), at the same time our lift required some expensive and necessary updating. All in all close on £30 grand!!!

We called an Extraordinary General Meeting at which all quotes and reasons were shown to all flat owners which resulted in a unanimous vote of a one-off payment by each flat of £1250 to cover all this important work. Three months was allowed for this payment, although all paid within a few weeks.

So we have now been able to go to this years AGM asking just for a cost of living (5%) increase in annual service charge - this brings it to £2100 pa. Again carried unanimously. It may sound a lot, but we are one of the lowest Service Charge of blocks of flats in our town. We all feel that we get a good bargain.
One of our volunteers (a retired florist), does flower arrangements in our large entrance foyer - all in season. Whenever a flat goes on the market, the EA's include a photo of our foyer as it looks so beautiful.

We have now agreed to set the emergency fund at £50,000 and rising. This is realistic. Two areas that could potentially cost large sum of monies are the lift and the roof.

We pay no ground rent as the Association itself is the owner of the land with each flat owing 1/25th of that. If we went out to a private Management Company (even a good one), we would have a surcharge for each flat . Running things ourselves, not only costs us less, but also ensures that we really get the best value for money for any work - and often volunteers can do some of this work for nothing.

We are members of the Federation of Private Management Companies who give us legal advice and keep us updated with changes in rules and laws.

Our block is noted locally for being very well managed. It can be done and done very well - when full information is given to all flat owners. We encourage any of the flat owners to come along to any of the committee meetings, and always ensure that ratified minutes are available for all to see. Open government keeps everyone happily involved and