Mainstay are doing us over.

jiblets1

We are about to complete on our new build property from Bellway, and we are part exchanging our Bellway flat as part of the deal. All good there, we're being treated very well. But Mainstay (our maintenance company) are insisting that we owe them the whole 6 months worth of maintenance fees, when they originally told us that we were only liable up to Feb 16th, when we are due to complete.

They have sat on this information (according to our solicitor, who we are pretty sure we can trust) for three and a half weeks, and are now telling us that to complete we need to pay them £75 for them to send the statement out to our solicitor, we have to pay the £500 that the next owner has to pay and they will refund it on completion (!?!) and worst of all, if we want to complete on time we have to pay them an extra £75 for express delivery!

How can this all be right? Can someone please help me out on where we stand? My OH is paying the money as we speak, as we are desperate to complete on time (as they well know), but we really feel we must at least be entitled to the £75 express delivery costs back. We're also worried they won't return the 500 future maintenance fees.

mystic_trev

I'm currently living in rented, but some of the owners of the apartments are refusing to pay their maintenance charges, becuse Mainstay don't "perform"

Here's a typical comment on our website.

"Hi Everyone,

Do you agree that Mainstay are casuing more hassel than good? It appears they can not produce accurate paperwork, letters, or even answer their own calls:

Here's a few things you might not know:

1. Mainstay employ a switchboard company to divert their calls - who pays for that? Like the payements company?!

2. The payments company are a sub-group of Manistay!

3. Mainstay have still not conatcted some residents who have bought from previous residents, despite being hasseled for recognition - if they can readily send out demands, you think they would readily contact new home owners!

4. They have still not produced a letter of permission for our pet, despite our dog being 8 months old now - we asked for it when we got her at 6 weeks old and have asked half-a-dozen times since!

5. Gleesons & Dennes are still in legal disputes with the window company Focus as they removed and replaced the windows themselves without the fitters during the build - forfeiting all gaurentees and ruining many people's windows.

6. Gleesons were without an MD for nearly 3 months at the start of this year. They have now appointed a new director to try and rescue their business. They will be selling off assests and land and will only focus on government related re-build and rennovate housing projects. This may put us in a strong position should we wish to become a Freehold development!


6. The cleaner emplyed by Mainstay will not perform anything over and above what he is told to do - that includes the obvious, like weeding the front patios! Not helped that apparently there is no contract between Mainstay and TCS (cleaning company) - they say that both parties are happy with their working relationships - stuff service level aggreements!!

I am sure I have much, much more to post - but I won't bore you with it all at once!! "

Doozergirl

It would be normal for you to pay service charge and to get a copy of the receipt. You then send the receipt to your solicitor and they request the pro-rata payment from 16th February from your buyer.

I've never involved a management company in the process at all. As you are discovering, they want money for eveything! You generally do need to pay a reasignment fee for the lease, but you shouldn't have to pay extra for paying them your service charge. Your buyers solicitor will also have requested answers of some general queries, one of which will ask if you have paid up to date. If you haven't it will detail what needs paying and all you need to do then is send a receipt for the amount that needs to be covered.

I'm not entirely sure I've understood everything you're saying though

jiblets1

We've not had any problems with them whilst living there. The place is always clean, and the concierges are wonderful. But now we're tryin to leave they seem to be eeking every last penny out of us. !!!!!!s.

jiblets1

Doozergirl wrote:

It would be normal for you to pay service charge and to get a copy of the receipt. You then send the receipt to your solicitor and they request the pro-rata payment from 16th February from your buyer.

I've never involved a management company in the process at all. As you are discovering, they want money for eveything! You generally do need to pay a reasignment fee for the lease, but you shouldn't have to pay extra for paying them your service charge.

So the 500 is usual, and we should get it back is that right? But the express delivery charge sounds unusual still?

Doozergirl

It sounds unusual but not surprising! As far as I can see, the entire point of professional management agents is to extort money. I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting the money back if you pay; my advice would have been to try and find a way around it.

jiblets1

Thanks doozergirl. They know they've got us over a barrel with the completion date. I shall keep at them, and will kick up one hell of a stink if it starts looking like they won't pay.

Wish me luck....

Doozergirl

Good Luck!

pingu79

Mainstay used to look after our building but the residents got a bit fed up of their poor performance and now we have Fisher hargreaves or something. Never actually saw them do any work here, thankfully one of the residents gave us access to the meters as Mainstay wern't very helpful on the phone. Since the change to the new company there is regulary window cleaners and cleaners doing the common areas weekly. Could your solicitor give any advice as to how this should be delt with?

tomstickland

Dealing with Mainstay is like trying to nail a jelly to the wall. We have the "pleasure" of having them as our "managing" agents at the moment. Noone is happy with their "service" versus their costs.

They sent each leaseholder a bill for £1085 to cover exterior redecoration costs with no explanation of how they arrived with this number. We refused to pay until they got their act together. A few weeks later a revised bill for £650 arrived. Meanwhile we contacted the surveyor and the contractors and obtained a full cost breakdown. None of our questions were answered satisfactorily by Mainstay.

What area are you in? I have a few direct telephone numbers for them.

Regarding their request for 6 months fees, this is normal. When I bought my flat then the previous owner paid for 6 months up front and I then had to pay them for the correct proportion of the money based on when we exchanged.

jiblets1

tomstickland wrote:

What area are you in? I have a few direct telephone numbers for them.

We're in Cardiff. Glad we're moving - Mainstay have just sent us a letter saying that the payment for the services they provide are now in arrears and they will be sending out revised prices soon.

With regards to the extra £75 for express delivery, Bellway have offered to pay that for us, as they want this to go through quickly as much as we do. Very decent of them. I really haven't got a bad thing to say about them.