Expert: Important to check contract when buy ex-council flats

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Landlords thinking about purchasing former council flats need to carefully check the contract before agreeing to the purchase, an industry expert has said.

A spokesperson from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) explained that the upkeep costs of former council flats sometimes turned out to be significant and added that it was important for landlords buying individual flats to make sure they were aware of their contract's details.

He explained: "The best way of describing it is that, if you were replacing windows in a block of flats, as a council you wouldn't just replace the ones that you owned; you would have to replace the whole lot.

"In that case, the person who owned the property would probably have to fund the process for that particular part of the building.

"If you owned a particular flat, you would … be required to pay a certain amount for the upkeep of the garden and things like that."

The spokesperson added that the details of such costs were always stipulated in the contract.

"It's important that the contract is properly looked at and investigated, and all [the] implications are considered before the property is bought," he added.

Recently Paragon reported that flats were the property type most favoured by professional landlords.

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