Is this a red flag?

I’m currently 50/50 on whether to pull out or not.

I recently discovered that leaseholders had to pay £30k each toward a new roof just over a year ago. With 40+ flats, that’s a +£1 million roof. Yep, insane.

Apparently the process was fractious and protected. Either way, the sinking fund clearly didn’t do its job.

There are some explanations for this crazy cost.

1) the building is old, Victorian.

2) the roof is pretty big, maybe one and a half five a side football pitches.

3) residents have access to the roof—it’s a communal space where people socialise, very nice in the summer, gets lots of use.

4) the flat is on a busy road so the scaffolding would’ve disrupted the pavement. Maybe this jacked up costs from the council?

The seller reminded me that yes, that was a lot but it’s paid for and there are no planned works.

Plus, my assumption is that since that was for something as massive as a roof, 30k is probly the worst it could get.

However, it’s an old building and I can see things found in the survey that will need work (namely new brickwork). So I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m footing a five figure bill some at some point.

There’s also the small matter of the bank valuing the property at 40k below agreed price. But multiple similar properties in the same block have gone for more than my place so I’m not too worried about that.

Is this a case of:

A) this flat has a 30k black mark against its name, run!

or

B) the roofs paid for, the sinking fund has been growing again. Yes there will a few extra costs here and there but If you like the place, buy it.