Right to buy council flat

[felly]

In 1988 I purchased my flat from the council. It had been valued at �35,000. I am shocked to find that in the same year my neighbour who lives in an identical flat also purchased his flat but his was valued at �25,000. Have I cause for complaint after all this time?

[CheekyChops]

I doubt you've got any comeback at all after 19 years! He may have negotiated the price better than you, did his flat have more 'mod cons' than yours, did he get a bigger discount? As I say, I doubt there is anything you can do this far down the line.

[smiffy65]

had your neighbour lived in his flat longer than you, if he did he would have got a bigger rebate than you, the longer you lived in a council property up till (1996 I think) you got a percentage of how many years you had lived there

[shanx]

you probably looked after your flat and put money into it when you were a council tenant , where as your neighbour didnt , so your property was valued higher by the improvements you done , hard to believe but that what happens

[bednobs]

there are also lots of reasons why one flat in the same place might be worth more or less than another in the same place

[Pippa68]

I wouldn't mind betting that your flat is still worth more than your neighbours ;o)

[felly]

Thank you all for your answers. I am aware that our discounts were different as he got nearly 70% and I got 60% but this makes no difference to the valuations. I paid �14,000 for my flat and he paid �7,650. As you can imagine this made a tremendous difference to my mortgage payments (interest rate at that time was 12.5%!). I had a new bathroom suite installed and replaced some units in the kitchen but it was far from being a fitted kitchen. Otherwise the flats were identical. I don't see that those small improvements should have made a difference in value of 40%. I just feel that I was treated unfairly. Another identical flat on the estate was valued at about �42,000 13 years after I bought mine.

[Pippa68]

My house was valued at almost 20 grand higher than next doors.

They are putting in a new bathroom & kitchen right now ~ you would be surprised at how much value those two rooms put on a property condition wise.

Oh, and they had a loft room..we didn't!

[felly]

Thanks Pippa68. However since posting my last comment, I realise that the alterations I did were after I made the purchase so the two flats would have been completely identical at valuation. �10,000 pounds difference in those days was an awful lot of money too!

[kujawski]

f**** me 12k @ 12.5 % whats that monthly, 150 per month, blimey what a repayment, i pay niegh on 950 per month,

[felly]

Sure kujawski it sounds like peanuts now but it was a long time ago. I worked full-time in local government at the time and my monthly salary was less than �400 after tax and deductions so it was a big chunk of my income. I was also bringing up a son on my own so money was tight. And by the way it wasn't �12,000 it was �14,000. I'm not saying it wasn't a bargain - all council house sales were and if it wasn't for that I would never have been able to get into the housing market. I just think my valuation was unfair.