A classic example

There's plenty of these about. Buildings that were released from local government majority ownership allowing people to finally buy their own flats...the downside being that the local government then flatly refuses to keep the building's exterior up to scratch, arguing correctly that this responsibility now lies with the tenants alone. Our house is the same really...there's plenty of work that could or should be done to the outside of the building, but there's no money in the pot. Given that it's not unusual for people to not pay their communal fees to the extent that the house then votes to encumber their flat, it seems unlikely that the situation will ever change! Still, it's sad when you see a building that obviously was once "a looker" now resigned to slowly falling apart. Ah well, no time to be sentimental about this building, there's another one about 600 metres from this one where they put scaffolding up in... well, it was prior to '93, that's for sure. The scaffolding remained in place for years until they finally took it down earlier this year. The only problem was that in the space of what?..more than a decade and a half, the residents never managed to scrape together enough cash to have the facade of the building repaired. What a pisser that must be.