Flat Maintenance too much?

jono3000

Thanks, I will get on to my estate agents.

Blondetotty

Hells Bells, you've got a bargain! We (5 flats purpose built) pay over £130 a month and we have to do our own gardening and cleaning (with those contracts added we'd be looking at well into the £200/£250 mark). We're shared ownership and were forced into paying into a sinking fund about 2 years ago, we pay approximately 40% of the above monthly bill into this. As the building was only completed in 2005, you had 5 very unhappy residents when we were informed!

I live in Southampton....fancy doing a flat swap?!

Fire_Fox

Blondetotty wrote: »

Hells Bells, you've got a bargain! We (5 flats purpose built) pay over £130 a month and we have to do our own gardening and cleaning (with those contracts added we'd be looking at well into the £200/£250 mark). We're shared ownership and were forced into paying into a sinking fund about 2 years ago, we pay approximately 40% of the above monthly bill into this. As the building was only completed in 2005, you had 5 very unhappy residents when we were informed!

I live in Southampton....fancy doing a flat swap?!

You aren't forced into anything as service charges can be disputed, even those that are already paid. If the majority of leaseholders agree, you may even have the right to self-manage. Have you been given a breakdown of annual expenditure?
http://www.lease-advice.org/

puddy

yes, i used to live in south london, buildings ins was 360 a year, ground rent 50, then shared maintanance like electricity, gardens and on top of that there was always some thing needing doing, the last big thing was the roadways in the estate, cost us all about 6k, before that it was the garage roofs, they were 3k, then before that it was the drains, and inbetween all that there was always copying fees, management percentages, fixing this fence, that wall clearing that tree or this bit of kerb etc

this was leasehold, worked out that in 12 years of owning flat, paid about 20k in maintanence. really money grubbing landlords and management company, i hated them

puddy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You aren't forced into anything as service charges can be disputed, even those that are already paid. If the majority of leaseholders agree, you may even have the right to self-manage. Have you been given a breakdown of annual expenditure?
http://www.lease-advice.org/

easily said but i remember various meeetings we had for our flats and the majority are often to apathetic/lazy/worried to go self management

Fire_Fox

jenner wrote: »

easily said but i remember various meeetings we had for our flats and the majority are often to apathetic/lazy/worried to go self management

I know how much of a PITA the entire process is, I have spent three years disputing our service charges with the support of just one other owner-occupier (all other flats BTL). So far I have not paid about £4K and fully expect most of this to be written off. Works out to a very good hourly rate, and will make my flat much more saleable at the end. Have you been given a breakdown of annual expenditure? Have you been to an LVT and disputed the charges? You can do that as an individual resident.

Blondetotty

Hi Firefox
I did look into self manage but unfortunately as shared ownership flats we don't have that right. If we all bought a full 100% share then we would but no-one has that kind of money - hence the reason for buying a 50% share in the first place. We're stuck with the HA and what they say. I've been to meetings with them, Citizens Advice and even my local MP to see what we could do to resolve (a lot of) issues but shared ownership isn't something that many professionals are aware of or could help with.

We do get a yearly breakdown although it took me 2 years to try and get copies of the relevant receipts for that first year - after 2 years I was heading for a breakdown and gave up in pure frustration.

To be honest even thinking and typing about the service charge problems is making my blood boil again, so I'll bow out now and go have a strong drink and a lay down in a dark room (I don't care if it is 9.34am in the morning, the vodka beckons!!) :rotfl:

Fire_Fox

Blondetotty wrote: »

Hi Firefox
I did look into self manage but unfortunately as shared ownership flats we don't have that right. If we all bought a full 100% share then we would but no-one has that kind of money - hence the reason for buying a 50% share in the first place. We're stuck with the HA and what they say. I've been to meetings with them, Citizens Advice and even my local MP to see what we could do to resolve (a lot of) issues but shared ownership isn't something that many professionals are aware of or could help with.

We do get a yearly breakdown although it took me 2 years to try and get copies of the relevant receipts for that first year - after 2 years I was heading for a breakdown and gave up in pure frustration.

To be honest even thinking and typing about the service charge problems is making my blood boil again, so I'll bow out now and go have a strong drink and a lay down in a dark room (I don't care if it is 9.34am in the morning, the vodka beckons!!) :rotfl:

It's taken me three years NOT to get a copy of the service contract for our caretaker, and I don't actually think it exists! I found CAB useless, they told me to find a solicitor who did legal aid but none who do legal aid do leasehold disputes. :rolleyes:

I have found it very satisfying to write letters to the management company quoting both my long lease and the Landlord-Tenant Act 1985, for example you must be given access to documentation within one month of a formal request! After one month they commit a summary offence for which they can be fined.

Have you read the LEASE website I linked to inside and out? Have you spoken to their free advice line (highly recommended), or looked into using their mediation service? Have you considered a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal? I'm not a big fan of self-manage anyway as it's a lot of work, and I didn't suggest that to you.

Blondetotty

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I have found it very satisfying to write letters to the management company quoting both my long lease and the Landlord-Tenant Act 1985, for example you must be given access to documentation within one month of a formal request! After one month they commit a summary offence for which they can be fined..

Yep, did the letters as above and quoted everything that I think was quotable! Eventually, I did get a response and the paperwork they sent me was reams and reams of irrelevant invoicing for every development in the South that the HA (Hyde Marlett) owned - nothing specific to our development :wall:

I'm in the processing of reading the lease website above, but after 4 years of constant battling the HA (on my own I might add as all of the other 4 flats are in agreement but seem to leave me to do the legwork as they can't be arsed) I've run completely out of steam. Although as I'm typing this I'm seeing that thats probably what they want, so ok I've got a new wind and I'm now going to go kick some HA butt...:rotfl: