New build house service charge for stream

summer1978

Hi would love some advice if anyone has any suggestions. We have just put a deposit (that is refundable) down on a lovely 3 bed semi we have had a 10% loan agreed from the housebuilder. Our deposit is refundable if we are unable to sell our current property or if we fail to get the mortgage as its in principle only.

The builder has been honest from the start that there is a monthly management fee / service charge to a company called Trinity for the maintenance of a balancing pond / water culvert to the sides of 6 plots only. Our plot is within this so we would incurr this charge. This area consits of wild grass area inflows and outflows. We have been told that the local authority has adopted the water culvert to the side of the 6th plot but its our responsibility to pay for the bit in front of our house.

My question is could we petition the council to cover our bit as its not private land and the rest of the hundred or so houses on the estate will have access to this it seems unfair that my block of 6 have to pay £49 a month for its upkeep. No one else on the estate has this charge. Its benifiting the whole estate as its purpose is to stop flooding so why would our little block have to pay for the whole thing?

Also what is to stop the management company hiking the price up in year two?

Thank you for any advice that you can offer as its the only thing that is worrying me about an otherwise happy house purchase.

xx

silvercar

£49 a month suggest it need serious maintenance.

I have a culvert at the bottom of my garden, hasn't needed anything doing to it since I've been here.

summer78

thanks for the reply i have never heard of anyone paying for this sort of thing before. How much does it cost you a month to upkeep it? Are you in a new build? Did you know about this before you moved in? Was just wondering if it will put of any future buyers when it comes time to move on in the future?

Thanks

silvercar

I've only got the culvert, no balancing pond (whatever that is).

I envisaged sun loungers on decking idly watching the stream go by, with maybe some gnomes fishing (OK, forget the gnomes). My surveyor said to think of open sewer, LOL.

Once we found it (its behind the summer house, so I didn't even know it was there until my surveyor found it), I checked with the water people. They said I was responsible for ensuring the free flow of water where it passes through my land. Apparently this includes removing dead cattle, though unless they've been airlifted in, I don't know how they would get there!

Even in the really bad weather its never been more than an inch or two deep, the water flows when you can see it, so we've never had to do anything.

Sounds like yours is more complex if you have a company looking after it. I would want to know if you have to use this comany, what exactly are your responsibilities. Could you maintain it yourself if you wished?

London_Town

£49 a month is already alot of money. If 6 plots are paying this then that's over £3500 a year. Can a balancing pond/water culvert that's probably been built for the housing development really need such expensive annual maintenance? Also, the figure of £49 sounds like it has been set to appear artificially low, below a perceived barrier of £50. I'd expect the charge to rise beyond inflation every year.

You don't say whether the cost is alot out of your budget, it would be out of mine. More to the point, if you expect to resell the house at some point, I'm sure this would put off some of the more switched on buyers.

I'd either try to negotiate so the builder spreads the cost between all homes on the estate, or simply walk away.

dander

Good grief! £49 a month is more than I used to pay for my entire service charge when I lived in a managed block of flats with on-site caretaker.