The right to buy has secured home ownership for nearly two million people who would not otherwise have been able to achieve it. The regime, introduced by the Thatcher government in the Housing Acts of the 1980s, has proved so popular that it has depleted local authority housing stock across the country, Having exercised the right to buy, new leasehold homeowners have been presented with unexpected challenges. The management of local authority-owned blocks is often offloaded to PFI companies or arms-length management organisations that agree to discharge the authority's repairing obligations, This can cause problems for private owners. Leasehold covenants will often require the local authority, in exchange for an annual service charge incurred by the private owners, to maintain the exterior of the block in good decorative order with a cyclical maintenance programme, including painting every five years. Leases will usually require authorities to landscape any communal garden areas and maintain the common parts of the building in good decorative order.
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