Jimboy

I lived in Forest Croft for many years until I retired in 2005.
I was paying about ?100 a month in Service Charge and we were hit by a bill of about ?3000 per flat just before I left, for re decoration and repairs of the outside of the building.

The biggest problem that I saw was that the only people who took any interest in the building were mainly the long term residents. There are quite a lot of the flats rented out by the owners who have little interest in the building or who they rent to.
The other group are the people who buy but don't stay there very long so there is a fairly significant transient population who again have little interest in the building.

I hope the new management are better than the old one who were appointed because of the promise of better service but who turned out to be pretty useless and expensive. Its a shame that things deteriorated so much over the years mainly due to poor management companies. The building could be very nice but as you say it needs money spent on it and the only source is the leaseholders.

Sorry to be so negative but make sure you get all the information you can about future plans and charges as you may end up with a money pit.