Service Charges, do I have grievances?

hayes126

I live in a block of new flats managed by an agent, at the moment my service charge for having a 2 bed 2 bath flat is around the £2000 a year mark, with amounts going as low as £1200 for studios. For this money I get, well, nothing. 2 lifts to maintain, a landscape garden that is turning yellow, no 24 hour staff but a building manager who doesn't hold keys, parcels or anything useful to me, an allocated parking bay that shares with a shopping centre (so different company manage it yet our charge seems to pay for them) and some general repairs don't seem to get done.

Other local developments pay a few hundred less than me and would receive gym, pool, concierge etc. so I don't know how our agent can justify our fees?

On top of that they demand charges paid half yearly in advance, only they didn't bill me until the end of the first 6 month period for the full amount which I paid. A month later I received another bill which is where I found out they'd "forgot" about me despite harping on about the importance of fees for cash flow, they're vital etc etc etc. Needless to say it's a lot of money back to back and I disputed it, saying I should get to stay in arrears. Eventually I began to agree to a DD but just as we were about to sort it out I had an "out of office" reply to an email and they never got me to again until last week after I'd complained. Now all of a sudden, because they negelected my account again, my DD had gone up by £150 a month to cover these 6 month period by the end of August!

It's just God awful management I believe not just of my account but also how they charge so much for so little. Do I have genuine grievances here that I can pursue? Would it worth it in anyones opinion? Also does anyone have experience in setting up RTM companies to get rid of current agents?

Kind Regards.

BitterAndTwisted

Service charges are always paid in advance. The agent does not have to send you a demand, you should pay it when it is due. If you thought the s/c were too high you should have thought twice before you committed to buy this property. The consequences of being in arrears with your payments could be dire, so you should make every effort to get your s/c payments up to date.

hayes126

Well they are now, we've arranged a payment.

But to be honest I never knew when the s/c was due until I got the invoice, a whole 6 months after they wanted it... So surely if it was so important they would've demanded it the moment I moved in?

DannyboyMidlands

With regard to the level of the fee you don't really have a leg to stand on I'm afraid. That's the arrangement you signed up to. These things are always a scam in my experience.

poppysarah

Lifts need maintenance and insurance. it's not cheap.

System

hayes126 wrote: »

I live in a block of new flats managed by an agent, at the moment my service charge for having a 2 bed 2 bath flat is around the £2000 a year mark, with amounts going as low as £1200 for studios. For this money I get, well, nothing. 2 lifts to maintain, a landscape garden that is turning yellow, no 24 hour staff but a building manager who doesn't hold keys, parcels or anything useful to me, an allocated parking bay that shares with a shopping centre (so different company manage it yet our charge seems to pay for them) and some general repairs don't seem to get done.

Other local developments pay a few hundred less than me and would receive gym, pool, concierge etc. so I don't know how our agent can justify our fees?

Sounds just like my place. I don't technically get anything for the £1,500 a year charge and the block is in a right old state. I occasionally see the caretaker (who gets a free flat courtsey of us mugs paying the service charge) sweeping the stairs but never see him doing anything else useful. I do get an annual statement of the income and expenditure (as should you if you are paying toward it) and it is frightening how much building & lift insurance costs for a block of flats. You will probably find that's where the main bulk of the fees go. It's also not unusual for these companies to charge money for a 'reserve' fund in case of things unexpectedly going wrong. Plus they obviously also charge a fee for their service.

Sadly you are at their mercy if you have signed a lease.