Service charges on flats

missile

thriftymanc wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I know there's no set rule - just trying to get an idea which is more common.

In our flats, maintenance charge is shared equally. Seems a bit unfair guy on ground floor pays a share of maintainance charge for the lift :rotfl:

TrickyDicky101

G_M wrote: »

You're obviously a sweet young thing and weren't around when Maggie inroduced the Poll Tax.

The result was the most serious rioting in London for decades, followed by a U-turn back to council tax!

That wasn't because it wasn't a fairer way of charging for council services though - just entrenched interests not likely that they had to stump up something for what they received

satchmeister

missile wrote: »

In our flats, maintenance charge is shared equally. Seems a bit unfair guy on ground floor pays a share of maintainance charge for the lift :rotfl:

The ground floor also pays for the roof and they don't really need that either do they?

Where we used to live the flat were split into various types and each type had a set charge, irrespective of the floor. But always the ground floor would complain they were paying for scaffolding when the upper floors windows were repainted.

m_13

There are 60 flats in our development. 15 flats in each block. The blocks all join on to each other but have separate entrances and lifts.

Blocks 1 and 4 have flats on the outer edges that have three bedrooms. On the top floor of each block the flats have roof gardens and are split level (minimum three beds but some have four). At the front of each block are one bedroom flats.

We all pay the same council tax band and the same service charge. At the last meeting a new owner raised this thorny issue and said she was paying more here than she did in London. She was soon told about the wonderful facilities, the caretaker, the location, the parking etc but the issue of why we all pay the same was never really covered.

satchmeister

m_13 wrote: »

There are 60 flats in our development. 15 flats in each block. The blocks all join on to each other but have separate entrances and lifts.

Blocks 1 and 4 have flats on the outer edges that have three bedrooms. On the top floor of each block the flats have roof gardens and are split level (minimum three beds but some have four). At the front of each block are one bedroom flats.

We all pay the same council tax band and the same service charge. At the last meeting a new owner raised this thorny issue and said she was paying more here than she did in London. She was soon told about the wonderful facilities, the caretaker, the location, the parking etc but the issue of why we all pay the same was never really covered.

Seems unfair that a four-bed pays the same service charge as a one-bed, but the service charge is something that needs to be looked at when buying a flat. And it is normally quite clear in the lease as to how the charges are divided. I suspect that it will be next to impossible to change the % in this case. Where we lived type 1 paid say 4% and type 2 paid 6% etc based on the number of rooms.

Richard_Webster

Lot of speculation and people saying what happens in their block.

Read the lease!

It can be:

• Equal division regardless of size of flat
• Percentages fixed when lease originally granted
• A "fair proportion" which means that the freheolder can usually use any reasonable method
• By floor area
• By historic rateable value