Leasehold, flat new roof £32,000, have to pay in advance

What are the other leaseholders saying about it? Have you talked to them?
Could you get together and have a surveyor give an estimate for the work to challenge their costing?
It sounds dodgy to me.

Also if you have a solicitor on your side if shows you are not an easy money source.

In our block we pay upfront for the the same reasons your management fund gives you. My DH is chairman of the residents committee in charge of organising work currently needing done. It's not a scam. They just have to have the money to hand to pay the contractors. We really don't want to delay the work if the contractors walk off the site if they're concerned at non payment.

The management company has been negligent in not having a sinking fund. Sinking funds can be emptied by the management company

I would most definitely employ a solicitor, at the very least to read through the 3 quotes that you should have been shown

Ask also to see the accounts for the sinking fund

It is understandable that the money has to be `up-front`but worrying in case other leasehoders do default

We do have such a fund here but it gets depleted from time to time and needs topped up. Defaulters/non payers is a potential problem. However, the work must be done and faffing about with lots of residents wanting to see and comment on quotes etc is a recipe for constant delays meanwhile the fabric of the building deteriorated. Leave the management to get on with the job they were appointed to do.

Quotes are absolutely essential and should have been forwarded to all leaseholders. Management duty. (as ex chairperson of a management company)

I'm sure they were!

That doesnt seem right to me. Shouldn't a Management fund be there for just such instances, what happens if a few people haven't the money?. It's put me right off getting a flat especially a top floor one.

Hmm .my experience is that management companies need to be watched, not just left to get on with their jobs.
Excuse my cynicism.

Allsorts

That doesnt seem right to me. Shouldn't a Management fund be there for just such instances, what happens if a few people haven't the money?. It's put me right off getting a flat especially a top floor one.

We have owned 3 leasehold flats.
It is down to your solicitor to scrutinise that lease.

The building is above a very famous coffee shop, they are the main leaseholders and although they said some work is not needed through written emails, in an audio leaseholders’ meeting yesterday, they did not raise any objections.

Moreover, the other two small leaseholders didn’t either.. I have written to them, to try to organize our own survey to no avail.
I am shocked loopyloo how they accept the situation

I have bought and sold flats in France and when these meetings are held, some are 100s of owners others are just 8, the items are talked through but yesterday it was nothing of the sort.
The property owner has decided. It was as if it was a fait accompli, no decisions were made, it had already been decided.

karmalady It is true the French flats I have lived in all had a sink fund but this English building doesn’t have one.

Aveline This is what happens in my current flat. I do have the problem of being a UK leaseholder and being told the decision has been made, whereas I have always been a freeholder in the flats I have bought in France. It is a sort of comfort to know you do the same thing in that you also pay up front before the work has started.

The management company of the block of 30 flats where my mum lives has a sink fund but it was used up with a string of works that had been put on the back burner by the previous management company. Consequently the bills for a new roof to the garage block, lift renovations and now repointing have all rolled in over the past four years. Residents are very cross about it but work has to be done and money has been paid to the management company upfront for all projects.
They are now beginning to build up the sink fund against future works.

As a side note we had to inform our insurers that work was being done and consequently the premiums were raised by a few pounds just to add insult to injury!!

Building insurance is a huge issue. Finding insurance companies willing to insure us is not straightforward. However, it's got to be done.

What karmalady says is absolutely correct. There should be a sinking fund for any well managed leasehold block, whatever the size.

Unless I’ve misunderstood, I thought that building works/repairs were the responsibility of the freeholder?

Could the money be held in Escrow or similar until the work has been completed to a satisfactory standard?

The cost is always passed on to the leaseholders Squiffy.

I didn’t know that Barkeyfields!

Sorry, Barleyfields! 🤦‍♀️

😊

Aveline

In our block we pay upfront for the the same reasons your management fund gives you. My DH is chairman of the residents committee in charge of organising work currently needing done. It's not a scam. They just have to have the money to hand to pay the contractors. We really don't want to delay the work if the contractors walk off the site if they're concerned at non payment.

That sounds as if you all own your leases Aveline, is that right?

I thought a Freeholder had to create a sink fund. This is quite shocking mokryna.

The bills covering leaseholders seem to have stalled in Parliament but the really will be difficult to unravel and someone will always have to pay for the areas held in common. However, as I undrawn it, other countries manage so there must be a way.

Absolutely shocking, it must leave people so sick and scared .
The leaseholders will be big corporations who can well afford to pay this.
I'm sorry to say all Gov have had a chance to put this medieval way of land owning to rest, but no.

There is no obligation to create a sinking fund unless the freeholder/head leaseholder/management company undertakes to do so in the leases of the flats. The leaseholders of the flats should be required to make periodic contributions to the sinking fund and the amount held in it will be declared in the audited annual accounts distributed to the owners of all the flats. It is very unwise to purchase a leasehold property without sinking fund provisions being set out in the lease and there being a decent amount in the fund because eventually there will be a sudden large bill to pay, as the OP has found.