Bought house from housing association 2005. Just got a service charge bill for £548?

sarah7610

Hi,
I bought my house from the housing association in 2005, which I got with a discount as i was already living in it.
I have recieved a letter from this housing association today telling me I have an outstanding 'Service Charge' balance of £548.47 which according to them dates back to 2006.
About 2 years ago they sent me a similar letter asking for payment for this so called service charge so I phoned them up and asked them exactly what it was for. They told me it was for cutting the grass, (not mine I might add but the houses they still own and the flats), cleaning communal entrances and stairwells (of the flats) and for the up-keep of the lamposts?

I refused to pay as none of this 'service' benefitted me and they said if i didn't pay they would claim it from my mortgage company. I said, fine but they never claimed a penny.

I'm just not sure whether this demand for service charge is legal as others on the estate have bought their houses and don't pay it. The letter also comes from the Leasehold Assistant and yet my house is Freehold.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me please?

Thanks Sarah

Robert_Sterling_3

Very puzzling indeed.

theartfullodger

You're not in Scotland are you?? I own a house on a scheme (what the English would call a council estate) and the housing association which owns some houses there & manages the estate for the council sends me & other property owners grounds maintenance bills each year.

On query it they told me the right to levy charges would be in my deeds - which they were.

I'd strongly suggest your re-reading your deeds/whatever else you got as paperwork when you bought.. If it ain't mentioned in there I can't see how anyone would have a legal right to charge you.

That might, of course, leave open the question of who pays for communal services that benefit everyone... leaving aside the other question as to if the charges are fair for the work done and if the work needs doing anyway.

IMHO piles of uncleared rubbish in common areas disnae enhance property values or delight the sensitive visitor..

Cheers!

Artful

moneysaver

sarah7610 wrote: »

Hi,
I bought my house from the housing association in 2005, which I got with a discount as i was already living in it.
I have recieved a letter from this housing association today telling me I have an outstanding 'Service Charge' balance of £548.47 which according to them dates back to 2006.
About 2 years ago they sent me a similar letter asking for payment for this so called service charge so I phoned them up and asked them exactly what it was for. They told me it was for cutting the grass, (not mine I might add but the houses they still own and the flats), cleaning communal entrances and stairwells (of the flats) and for the up-keep of the lamposts?

I refused to pay as none of this 'service' benefitted me and they said if i didn't pay they would claim it from my mortgage company. I said, fine but they never claimed a penny.

I'm just not sure whether this demand for service charge is legal as others on the estate have bought their houses and don't pay it. The letter also comes from the Leasehold Assistant and yet my house is Freehold.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me please?

Thanks Sarah

If the service charge is on your deeds then it is legal.

You say it does not benefit you to get the grass cut etc.
Do you want to stay in a place where the grass is overgrown, the lighting is off, the place is full of litter?.
Also the paths that you walk on have to be repaired, you may also have lighting in a stairwell go out. This all has to be paid for, just because some others on the estate do not pay does not make it right.

Check your deeds & you will probably find the service charge is there.

My parents stay on an estate & have bought their house & have to pay it.


Moneysaver

poppysarah

I don't think I'd want to pay for my neighbours lawn to be cut. I pay council tax which goes towards the cutting of the grass verges.
It sounds unfair to me - but should have been explained to you when you bought it - perhaps it's a private estate still and not adopted roads.

Richard_Webster

OP is best advised to speak to the solicitor who acted when he bought as there should be something in the documents allowing this charge to be made.

It is also possible that it is one almighty foul up. HAs seem to be good at letting property and maintaining let property but find sales and the related management issues a bit daunting. I once had a client buy a former HA house on a small estate where there were also flats. The original transfer deed of the house included provsions for paying a service charge for maintenancee of open areas around the houses. The actual charge was quite small - £20-£40 pa but it didn't make a lot of sense to me what they were actually even spending that small sum on. I asked the HA to explain and produce some accounts - the local office didn't understand it at all and had to get someone in London to provide the documents and when they came they still didn't make sense as they contained charges for things such as lift maintenance! So I can believe in OP's case that they might be trying to charge him for a proportion of the costs of maintaining and insuring nearby flats!

I would suggest OP puts his concerns in writing. Telephone calls get forgotten about. Once he has established from his solicitor that he cannot be charged for items related to the flats, write to HA asking precisely what the charges are for and point out that mention was made about cleaning stairwells of flats. kweep up thepressure and if no reply comes forth then write "private and confidential" to the Chief Executive (find out his name) of the HA.

moneysaver

poppysarah wrote: »

I don't think I'd want to pay for my neighbours lawn to be cut. I pay council tax which goes towards the cutting of the grass verges.
It sounds unfair to me - but should have been explained to you when you bought it - perhaps it's a private estate still and not adopted roads.

It will not be a neighbours lawn that gets cut, it will be a communal area that everyone uses.

Most of these Housing associations are run by charities. Also the council does not maintain the communal areas & pathways, so someone has to pay for it.


Moneysaver

moneysaver

Have a look at the bill, it will have a breakdown of what the charges are for.

worried_jim

seems perfectly reasonable to me- I pay £1105 per year, although this does also include buildings insurance. I own the flat but still have to contribute to the up keep of the grounds and buildings. check your mortgage company to see if a charge has been made against the property prevously.

poppysarah

The OP said house.

princeofpounds

Sarah, you probably did not buy the house at all, you probably bought the leasehold of the house. Which is practically a similar thing, but not exactly. With a leasehold, you basically own the building for a period, but at then end of the lease (99 or 999 years often) it would revert back to the freeholder who owns the ground it stands on (unless you extend the lease which you would have the right to do).

Leaseholders often have to pay a service charge to maintain the fabric of the communal areas - roads, paving, gardening, stairwells, communal piping etc. What can be charged will be specified in the lease document.

Even if you don't think you use communal areas, you probably do. Without it, a broken door on the front of the flats would not get fixed. It may be that the grass verge does not get cut (you do not pay council tax for this, but for things like grass cutting on public land). Graffiti on the entrance gate would not be cleaned. A broken sewage pipe which is not adopted by the water board would not be fixed. Litter and fly tipping of broken white goods would not be sorted. It is likely that even though you own one of the houses, all the flats and the houses are counted as one freehold.

All this would have been perfectly clear, if a bit long winded, in the lease.

Of course it may be you bought the freehold, in which case they don't know what they are talking about. But you need to check your documentation to be sure.