Service Charges - Fair?

poppysarah

receipts? whats that

sarah_elton

melonball7980 wrote: »

As residents we pay them £18000 as service charge a year.
According their statment ;-

Receipts = £9359
Cleaning = £833
Maintenance = £668
Repairs = £710
Miscellanous = £35
Audit Fee = £240
Management Charges = £3060
Insurance = £1200
Total = £7605
Surplus = £1754 doesn't say where this goes to

Estimate for re-decoration £21875
contributions made last year £5426

Where's the over £3125 gone then?

Surplus will usually go into a sinking fund towards big projects (redecoration, car park resurface, anything like that) - it saves people being hit with an unexpected bill for a few grand each if they haven't saved up for these things.

If you have a management company, they'll be taking a slice as their admin/management fee - you could query it and ask how much. Just give them a call and ask where the extra money has gone - you've got a right to know.

melonball7980

I'm assuming the £3060 for management is the fee for that.

It's shared ownership through housing association so I'd guess we're stuck with them but we play rent to them every month too.

robin_banks

That's all very well in theory Sarah, the reality is likely to be somewhat different. Service charges can never be compared like for like as no two sets of flats are the same.

Service charged are and always will be a nice little earner for any management company.

TotallyBroke

We don't have a sinking fund at the moment but they have posted stuff out telling us that they are going to.
I would love to get everyone together to buy out the freehold so we could look after our own block but we still have one council tenant left so it's a no can do. Plus we would still be liable for the estate charges and lighting etc.

Hugbubble

Mine is actually a bit higher than yours, but it is calculated on sq footage of my apartment (and it is a big flat).

It also covers buildings insurance and water rates so it isn't so bad when I take that into account.

Ours is now managed through a residence committee and I think its the way forward.

PasturesNew

melonball7980 wrote: »

It's shared ownership through housing association so I'd guess we're stuck with them but we play rent to them every month too.

What annoys me is that you're paying £125/month for just a service charge PLUS your rent on your half .... but I bet they are renting out identical places to full renters much cheaper. If your SO is 50%, then you pay half the rent and the service charge; I bet a pure renter would be paying just double what your rent portion is.

Chris2685

The place we are going to rent is going to be around £850 per month, but the service charge is paid so that is no use to you really... Apart from the fact that I can also tell you that 'regular' 2 bed flats go for around 750-800 pcm, and ours includes a large communal garden, parking, swimming pool and gym. So I would put the service charge at £100 pcm or so, but without asking I have no idea.

It sounds like you're paying alot to get the grass cut!

sarah_elton

robin_banks wrote: »

That's all very well in theory Sarah, the reality is likely to be somewhat different. Service charges can never be compared like for like as no two sets of flats are the same.

Service charged are and always will be a nice little earner for any management company.

Exactly as I said in my first post - 25% of what I pay used to go in the managment company's pocket. That's why we went self-managed. But you need a group of residents with time on their hands which fortunately we had.