Maintenance charges

You have no choice, and you pay it all the time you are there. Houses tend to pay lower service charges than flats. You also have no say in the charge unless you go down the "Right to Manage" route, which I don't know enough to be able to speak about with any great knowledge.

But I do know all about the scam that is "service charge". If you feel that the charge is unfair, I believe you can take the matter to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (for example paying a gardener £50k a year to mow the lawn every month is probably not realistic) but beyond that, there's little you can do other than accept it.

Many new builds have these kind of charges attached and if the roads are unadopted it can be much worse since the cost of street lightning and so on will be covered by the residents rather than the council.

I know of a few small developments (no more than 5 or 6 houses) locally where residents have taken over maintenance themselves but on a larger estate it would probably be very difficult to arrange that.

SolidShot wrote: »

I did not know these charges are forever. I can see in the future properties with service/maintenance charges will be hard to sell.

Many new build estates have these charges and since the percentage of the market accounted for by newer houses will only grow in years to come these charges will become more common than they are today. Especially since councils seem more and more unwilling to adopt new developments.

Edit: It's not just new houses either, some older properties have covenants stating they must contribute to upkeep of a private road and so on.

I have just signed up to buy a new build and it states an ascending service charge and everybody pays it in the new development for upkeep of surrounding land scapes and general upkeep of area. My and every house on the development is freehold.

Cheers.

Just found an extract here that helps;
A service charge is usually payable on leasehold properties, but in some cases they are also payable on freehold properties where there are shared services or communal areas.
The most common service charge situations related to a freehold are when there are private roads, drains serving the properties or when the development has communal areas. In return for the payment, you will be granted rights to use common areas, services and rights of access.
Your transfer deed will contain such rights granted for your property and reserved to the other properties in common. This is subject to a provision for payment of the service charge normally calculated on a percentage of use between the properties.
You will be obliged to enter into an agreement with the developer and other property owners to continue to pay service charge. In most cases, a management company will be set up to collect the service charge and organise the upkeep and maintenance of the services. You may be granted a share in the management company and, as residents, have a say in the running of the building.
If the accrued service charge does not cover the amount required for any expenditure, a developer could demand higher premiums from you and the other owners to cover these costs if required.

cheers again.