Un happy with HA service charges

crazypaver

Hi there,

I live in a block of 9 flats with a communal back garden. 4 of the flats are shared ownership, 4 are rented and I bought the remaining share of mine from the HA before Christmas.

We recently received a letter indicating that the service charge we paid was increasing from £19 a month to £127 a month.

All the shared ownership tenants and myself were very confused and after some lengthy emails/phone calls etc a meeting was called to discuss the proposed increase.

Apparently the HA had massively under budgeted last year and the new charge was a more accurate calculation of the maintenance costs.

When we broke the individual charges down in the meeting all the tenants agreed we were less than happy with paying what had been proposed. Not only did we feel the costs were too high, we didn’t feel like alot of the services (internal hovering and cleaning, gardening) were actually being carried out to a satisfactory level.

The HA did a recalculation and have provided us with a new figure of £58.85 which, needless to say is a vast improvement.

We do however still feel that something feels rather odd about the breakdown of the charges they have supplied as follows:

Charges are monthly.

Buildings insurance 2.08
Bulk rubbish removal 0.87
Caretaking services to the estate 0.55
Communal TV costs 1.98
Communal Cleaning contractor 16.41
Communal cleaning supplies 0.00
Communal electricity supply 0.00
Communal gardening contractor 20.63
Communal Gardening equipment repairs 0.00
Communal lighting repairs 0.00
Door Entry maintenance 1.98
Electrical safety checks 0.00
Managing agent fees 7.99
Pest control 0.00
Snow and ice clearance 0.00
Water rates - communal hb eligible 0.00
Management costs 6.36

I have emailed the HA to get clarification on why there are two separate charges shown with regard to management fees/costs which I would assume are the same thing?

What I can’t understand is how they can say there will be no charge for the electricity used in the communal areas? Or the fact there is no reference at all to maintenance of the fire alarm system which I’m assuming must be tested annually?

The garden is also definitely still not being maintained. It’s full of rubbish and all the residents are adamant that no one has done anything since long before Christmas. At which point we were informed that the gardening contract was being given to another contractor because people had complained the work was not satisfactory.

When I spoke to our housing officer last week she said that work is only carried out so many months a year, however we have no indication of which months these are.

From reading other posts around the site, it would seem that our charges are actually not that bad. It just seems to me that the service we are receiving is unsatisfactory.

I’m just slightly concerned about the way the charges are broken down.


If anyone has any comments or comparisons from their own HA service charges I would be interested to hear them.

Cheers.

Fire_Fox

You can only be charged for items that are specified (could be in a general manner) in your long lease so this is the first place to start. By law charges made under the long lease be "reasonable", "reasonably incurred" and works must be to a "reasonable standard". You have the right to formally dispute any aspect of the charges or standard of work, but this must be done in writing (NOT e-mail) - as the veteran of a three and a half year dispute I would strongly recommend you use recorded delivery.

You do not usually have the right to withhold service charges which are under dispute, this would put you in breach of contract. You also have the right to seek further information - copies of service contracts and invoices, for example - but again these must be requested in writing. This website explains the rights and responsibilities attached to leasehold properties in plain English
https://www.lease-advice.org/publications/

crazypaver

Cheers for the advice. Will have a look through the info via the leasehold advisory link.

I believe the original copy of the 'long lease' is held with my solicitor, would this be correct and can I request it to be returned?

J.

Fire_Fox

If you have a mortgage your long lease may be held by the lender, the conveyancing solicitor may have a copy or you may well have one filed away (certainly I was given a photocopy to check over before exchanging contracts). If none of these are any good you can download a copy from the land registry website, ensure you download the title relating to the leasehold for your flat and not the title relating to the freehold of the building.