Service charging review

colinliu1975

Hi Guys,

OM Property again!!!

I am planning to review my service charges and wanted to know whether anyone had done the same about writing a letter to their service companies. What I have is similar to the thread. Given an overall breakdown:

Like so

Communal Elec 450 (Hoover used fortnightly + outside light)
Communal Water 50 (Never seen a tap)
Communal Cleaning 900 (Cleaner round fortnightly)
Maintenance of landscaped areas 600 (For two flower beds)
Door Entry System Repairs 150
Communal TV Aerial Repairs 150
General Repairs 900
Elec Maintenance 300
Management Fees 1002
Health and Safety Costs 50
+ Contrib to non annual expenditure 1250
TOTAL 5802
divided by 9 = 644.67
or 53.72 per month per property

The figures are not accurate, but for my place it is totals £1200 plus a possible adjustment, which was added last year. This amounted to £120 extra.

I plan to get a thorough breakdown, examples of a template letter and importantly, how should the breakdown should really appear would be great? Any one requested for electricty bills for example?

Would appreciate some advice on how to go about writing the letters and going ahead with this.

Rgds

G_M

Sounds expensive.

Do you have/attend management meetings? Do you speak to the other flat owners? Have you discussed taking over management yourselves?

Yes, you can ask for evidence of the costs - ie bills.

Advice here.

colinliu1975

Yes it is expensive. I have thought about RTM but it seems impossible getting hold of the leaseholder as most of the blocks are rented out.

No meeting here unfortunately although it would be nice to have one. Again, difficult to contact the owners.

Asking for evidence under Section 22. Anyone tried this and can you send me a sample letter on how to approach this?

Rgds