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The Great "Leaseholders, tell us your service charge tales" hunt
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MSE_Jenny
Posts: 1,312 MSE Staff
Great 'Leaseholders, tell us your service charge tales' Hunt
If you own a leasehold flat, you need to pay service charges to the freeholder. Some charge £10,000s in fees for things you could do for a fraction of that.
So we want to hear your experiences and views on unfair service charges. Have you been overcharged or billed for something bizarre? Did you try to challenge the fees and, if so, what happened?
If you own a leasehold flat, you need to pay service charges to the freeholder. Some charge £10,000s in fees for things you could do for a fraction of that.
So we want to hear your experiences and views on unfair service charges. Have you been overcharged or billed for something bizarre? Did you try to challenge the fees and, if so, what happened?
Just click 'reply' below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren't sure how it all works, watch our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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But there for the bona fide landlrods and agent there are
1 many things landlords and their agents need to do which residents are blissfully unaware of
2 many residents fail to understand they have a lease that sets out the things that they should have read but haven't, despite being told to do so by their solicitor and getting into trouble by making assumptions
3 that unlike owning a house where you can do things yourself, often with no regard to the safety of others, or hire a man with no regard to whether they are competant insured and will discount for cash, they can't.
There are so many occasions where I have turned up to a pre trial review mediation or arbitration to see reams of complaints and rationalisations, which on discussion the residents says oh ok and wanders off with a new understanding and respect.
That said there are some right barstewards and some outrageous practices out there too
from landlords to agents to the buy let and hide flat owners who leave their neighbours to pay and subsidise them. Stop! Think. Read the small print. Trust nothing and assume that it is your responsibility. That way it rarely goes wrong.
Actively hunting down the person who invented the imaginary tenure, "share freehold"; if you can show me one I will produce my daughter's unicorn0 -
I used to live in a flat and there were lots of complaints about our freeholders and if you googled their name you would see they were held in contempt by a large number of people.
The most ridiculous and petty of all things was the one that really annoyed me (might say more about me, that I would get annoyed by it!).
Anyway because of their reputation for charging hefty amounts for any arrears, I always used to make sure I sent my yearly ground rent cheque off in plenty of time. Usually 2 weeks in advance with a stamped addressed envelope for receipt. I would get my receipt and then a week later an invoice would arrive, stamped "PAID" - and they would charge me for the privilege of sending the invoice.
When I queried it, I was told they had to send me an invoice, even if the account was paid and that they had the right to charge for it.
We are only talking pennies, but it irked me that someone could charge me to tell me that I didn't owe them anything.
I COULD have waited for the invoice to pay, but they used to send them out second class and allow only 7 days from date of issue for payment before charging interest. You could pay by credit card over the phone - for another fee. I felt like it was win win win win situation for them. :mad:0 -
I used to live in a flat and there were lots of complaints about our freeholders and if you googled their name you would see they were held in contempt by a large number of people.
The most ridiculous and petty of all things was the one that really annoyed me (might say more about me, that I would get annoyed by it!).
Yep
The company that I think that you are talking about managed a flat that I was thinking of buying
Every year they charged a substantial sum for sending a surveyor to value the property for insurance purposes.
What the hell! Who does that on an annual basis? You re-value once every (say 10 years) and in the interim just use the "official" house building inflation figures for the type of property that you have. Even if you add an extra 10% and over insure the cost will still be less than paying for the annual survey.
Just one of the scams that they ran.0 -
I lived in a very large block of flats once. I was the tenant but fully up-to-speed on the leasehold issues.
The freeholder had appointed managing agents. Quite a number of the leaseholders were upset with the way the managing agents were running the block but they could never get enough leaseholders together to take over management (due to absentee landlords like mine basically).
So one guy decided to stop paying, alleging various borderline criminal activities on the part of the managing agent.
The managing agents launched a furious legal assault on him, funding this with money from leaseholder contributions. He started suing back and the agents start paying for a defence from the central pool too.
Three years later, still no resolution, service charges escalate 50% to pay the legal fees. I don't think anyone came well out of that one.
Then I left.0 -
princeofpounds wrote: »The managing agents launched a furious legal assault on him, funding this with money from leaseholder contributions. He started suing back and the agents start paying for a defence from the central pool too.
Three years later, still no resolution, service charges escalate 50% to pay the legal fees. I don't think anyone came well out of that one.
A mate of mine had a similar thing - the management company decided that work needed doing on two blocks and wanted to divide the costs between all the leaseholders of all the blocks (eight block IIRC). Some leaseholders got together and took them to court - all the costs got added to the service charge, which was already pretty high.
Makes me glad that my freeholder is the company of which all the leaseholders are members - we employ a managing agent to do the legwork for us but basically only pay what is needed, no management company to cream off for their profits nor do diddly-squat in return for the service charge.0 -
tim123456789 wrote: »Yep
The company that I think that you are talking about managed a flat that I was thinking of buying
Every year they charged a substantial sum for sending a surveyor to value the property for insurance purposes.
What the hell! Who does that on an annual basis? You re-value once every (say 10 years) and in the interim just use the "official" house building inflation figures for the type of property that you have. Even if you add an extra 10% and over insure the cost will still be less than paying for the annual survey.
Just one of the scams that they ran.
Sounds like our friends: 'I stole air' ?
They were after £210 for consent & registration of underletting. After I won in the LVT, they appealed to the Lands Chamber, and were awarded £40.0 -
I'm currently having issues with my Freeholder due to historic service charge arrears from before I owned the flat.
Details here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4738859
I am currently disputing the charges due to the freeholder's failure to declare the arrears when specifically asked. Not sure how it will end but think it it thoroughly unreasonable of them to demand money for a debt which I did not accrue, eight months after they gave me a supposedly up to date balance which was cleared.0 -
Weirdly, I have the opposite problem - the freeholder hasn't charged a service charge for six years.
Unfortunately that means he also hasn't done any maintenance, and the building is falling into a state of disrepair. The worst of which is a leaking roof which has my living room permanently damp.
I've begged and pleaded, but feel powerless to achieve anything. I have images of ending up living in a run down slum that I'm paying mortgage on!0 -
The service charge we pay seems crazy! We were verbally told by the developer before buying that it would be around £60 per month. Not too bad. Unfortunately we didn't get it in writing, so when 6 months later they upped it to £100 per month, there wasn't much we could do. A few years later, it's now over £120 pre month. And it's only a 1 bed flat!!!0
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Edelweiss1979 wrote: »... A few years later, it's now over £120 pre month. And it's only a 1 bed flat!!!
Do you get sight of the annual service charge account?
Are the charges in line with the terms and conditions of the lease?Posts are not advice and must not be relied upon.0
This discussion has been closed.
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