Housing association charges for street repairs

jmyles

Hi all,

Newly registered but have been lurking around for a while and thought i'd post this on behalf of a family member to see if anyone can give us any tips. Apologies if it's in the wrong section but this one seemed most appropriate.

Today we received a letter from the housing association which owns and rents out a decent number of houses in our street. We, however, own our own house and at a rough guess i'd say the split is around 50/50 in the street of owners/renters.

The letter states that we have to pay almost £60 within 21 days of receipt for our share of "essential road repairs" which the housing associatioin identified as needing done and got a contractor in to fix. Included in this is a £8 admin fee (presumably for the letter!).

Now we can remember a couple of weeks ago some minor repairs being done to the road surface but we've had no notification at anytime that this was something we'd get charged for. In fact we were very much under the impression that the road and the surrounding footpaths and sections of grass/trees were maintained by the council especially as we got them to trim back a tree that was blocking all light from our bedroom window less than a year ago.

I suppose from reading around a bit i should point out that this isnt a new build street either as that would have meant the housing assoc/developers would have been responsible for everything for a min of 12 months before the council got involved.

Anyway, i guess our questions are -

1. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and can offer some advice?
2. Can they just drop a bill in our lap whenever they feel like it without any kind of consultation/notification before the work is done?
3. Not only does the work that was done seem very minor for the overall cost (split between the houses) the admin fee is ludicrous as it's like 7.5% of the overall cost. Does anyone know if there is any way we can question the overall cost and/or the admin fee?

Thanks in advance for any advice

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

jmyles wrote: »

Hi all,

Newly registered but have been lurking around for a while and thought i'd post this on behalf of a family member to see if anyone can give us any tips. Apologies if it's in the wrong section but this one seemed most appropriate.

Today we received a letter from the housing association which owns and rents out a decent number of houses in our street. We, however, own our own house and at a rough guess i'd say the split is around 50/50 in the street of owners/renters.

The letter states that we have to pay almost £60 within 21 days of receipt for our share of "essential road repairs" which the housing associatioin identified as needing done and got a contractor in to fix. Included in this is a £8 admin fee (presumably for the letter!).

Now we can remember a couple of weeks ago some minor repairs being done to the road surface but we've had no notification at anytime that this was something we'd get charged for. In fact we were very much under the impression that the road and the surrounding footpaths and sections of grass/trees were maintained by the council especially as we got them to trim back a tree that was blocking all light from our bedroom window less than a year ago.

I suppose from reading around a bit i should point out that this isnt a new build street either as that would have meant the housing assoc/developers would have been responsible for everything for a min of 12 months before the council got involved.

Anyway, i guess our questions are -

1. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and can offer some advice?
2. Can they just drop a bill in our lap whenever they feel like it without any kind of consultation/notification before the work is done?
3. Not only does the work that was done seem very minor for the overall cost (split between the houses) the admin fee is ludicrous as it's like 7.5% of the overall cost. Does anyone know if there is any way we can question the overall cost and/or the admin fee?

Thanks in advance for any advice

It's a factoring charge for the upkeep of the area, this isnt unusual for a private house to have that included in the deeds etc. Often housing associations built them and sold them on knowing these terms would rake them in cash.

As whether its reasonable depends on what agreements exist but an adhoc or annual bill for £60 will almost certainly be acceptable and not need consultation.

That doesnt seem all that high tbh given the work involved in being a factor.

You will find there are ways to appeal the costs or have the factor dismissed but frankly you are far better off just accepting you will get an annual/adhoc bill for upkeep of the area for similar amounts. It is necessary for the area to be upkept and without these sort of agreements it would not happen as the council dont normally have liability for private areas such as that beyond the highroads and streetlighting and other major infastructure requirements.

jmyles

Thanks for the response.

I agree that it's not a huge bill but it is unexpected especially given that the council have maintained the public areas around the road (which I always thought were tied into the maintenance of the road itself) and even the pavement outside our house a couple of years ago when it started to subside a little at the entrance to our garden. I guess it's just never nice to receive a bill for anything out of the blue like that

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

jmyles wrote: »

Thanks for the response.

I agree that it's not a huge bill but it is unexpected especially given that the council have maintained the public areas around the road (which I always thought were tied into the maintenance of the road itself) and even the pavement outside our house a couple of years ago when it started to subside a little at the entrance to our garden. I guess it's just never nice to reecive a bill for anything out of the blue like that

Are you sure it was the council and not contractors brought in by the housing association?

Its quite possible the council heard your complaints and once they realised it was a HA area passed it on.

Tbh you should have expected these costs and there likely to be semi regular.

jmyles

Yeah i'm 100% sure it was the council....and we've lived here since Nov 1995 and this is the first time we've received any bill for work such as this

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

jmyles wrote: »

Yeah i'm 100% sure it was the council....and we've lived here since Nov 1995 and this is the first time we've received any bill for work such as this

Strange

Ultimately if you were part of a HA factor agreement to receive no bills for 14 years is very strange.

Call them and ask about it, maybe the HA have taken over from the council or something.

olly300

You should post this on the house buying, renting and selling forum.

You also need to include additional details like:
1. Do you have a leasehold?
2. Do you pay ground rent?
3. What other information was received with the letter i.e. a document explaining your legal rights

The reason I am asking is that I know people who live in houses that are leasehold houses, and I know people who live in a houses that are not leasehold houses but every year they have to pay a small sum for maintenance of the communal grounds and car park.

In all occasions this was notified to the people by their solicitor when they were buying the property and they have documents to state and explain this.


Therefore I suggest you:
1. Hunt out and read all the documentation that you received when you purchased the house.

2. Read this online information from lease- advice.org http://www.lease-advice.org/scgrframe.htm
(If you don't understand any of it then phone them up when they are open. )

3. Contact the housing association in writing using recorded delivery if you think that they have violated anything in your lease/contract with them.

Also I should add that landlords (freeholders) are allowed to charge an admin cost and arguing about £8 is going to cost you a lot more in time and legal fees than paying it if the rest of the charges are correct.

The admin cost not only pays for sending out the letters to you but for sorting out the work.

Unfortunately with any property that comes with some sort of external maintenance charge landlords (freeholders) can get away with charging what they like unless they are legally challenged.

dmg24

OP, are you in England or Scotland?

jmyles

Thanks for the advice i'll pass it on....and we're in Scotland.

geordie_joe

jmyles wrote: »

1. Does anyone know if there is any way we can question the overall cost and/or the admin fee?

Yes, simply write to the housing association asking them why they think they can charge you for the work. When you get an answer you will know what you are up against.

Primrose

As you own your own house I would check the deeds to see if it covers any mention of a compulsory payment for street repairs. My parents lived for many years on an estate in Sussex where the roads were owned by the estate and every resident had to make a compulsory payment towards street maintenance as this wasn't funded by the council.