Paying maintenance charge to HA but no maintenance has been done

Disgruntled1967

I'm at work at the moment.

I'll post it when I am home, as all details are there. Thanks.

Disgruntled1967

Actually what I think I will do is c&p all the relevant bits of the agreement into an email, pointing out that none of these have happened, and refer them back to the paragraph that says they will refund if they have not provided the services.

Sometimes writing it out helps to clear the mind

Thanks anyway for the replies so far.

princeofpounds

Actually what I think I will do is c&p all the relevant bits of the agreement into an email, pointing out that none of these have happened, and refer them back to the paragraph that says they will refund if they have not provided the services.

Well that in itself is interesting.

Come back when you have more time.

Disgruntled1967

I will!

I'll post here later when home. Thanks!

Disgruntled1967

Ok, here goes, I have commented in red by each paragraph.

The main service charges pay for:
Estate services which may
include some or all of the
following, depending on the
facilities in your block or
neighbourhood:
– cutting grass;
– maintaining shrubs
and flower beds;
– cutting hedges;
– tree works;
– weed control;
– removing litter, rubbish
and abandoned cars;
– pest control;
– maintaining and replacing
playground equipment,
signs and benches;
– maintaining pond
and water features;
– any services carried out
in accordance with our
winter weather policy;
– maintaining unadopted roads,
footpaths, car parking areas;
– lighting.

None of the above has ever been done.

Each year we estimate how
much it will cost to provide the
services covered by the service
charge. We do this by looking
at how much it cost us in the
previous 12 months and taking
account of any changes that
we know about for the next 12
months.

They have raised the charge this year, I don't see how they can justify that when they did not do anything.

If we do not deliver a service that
we are charging for and do not
reinstate it within five working
days of being notified we will
not charge for the service.

This has not happened.

credit will be made to the service
charge account for the block or
estate. This will then be taken into
account when we set the charge
for the following year.

Again, has not happened, they are charging us more this year.

It does say this:
If you do not pay your rent

including the service charge then
we will take action in accordance
with our rent arrears policy.

So I will not be able to threaten them with that then!

We have paid over a £100 now, and we were told before we moved in that these areas were covered, they now say they were not. The paperwork says they are, we still pay for it.

I am holding off emailing for a week or so, give them a chance to reply.

Be interested to hear your thoughts prince of pounds. :cool:

mavisangelica

We have just sold our ex shared ownership house (bought all of it many years ago but still responsible for the service charge). A couple of years ago the HA changed the way they did the service charge to the way you are paying it - estimated at the beginning of the year and then reconciled at the end. When the reconciliation came through we got a detailed list of invoices that were relevant to our 'scheme'. we also were 1 of 18 houses but also part of an estate.

Of the 19 years we lived there we were constantly questioning the service charge and each time each time the HA would come back and admit that they had it wrong. When they changed to the estimate method, the first year's final bill was double the estimate. They also tried to add on staffing costs, which, when we queried it, they admitted that we shouldn't pay it. Another time, they tried to charge us a one off fee of £75 for a survey of the area to see what work was required. To top it all, the so called 'surveyor' started taking pictures of our house and was adamant that he required access into the back.

If we had stayed there we would definitely have done what you are doing and really pushed things but once our house went up for sale we backed off. Sadly, none of our neighbours wanted to get involved so presumably the just benefited on our hard work.

Disgruntled1967

Thanks Mavis, our houses are on an estate too. All brand new houses.

When I ask what we are paying for they can't tell us! They know they don't cover an area, but they say they don't know what we are paying for, and they are happy to increase the charge as well!!

It is extremely frustrating.

cattie

If you try to deduct any charge from your rent, you will be put in arrears & this can lead to you being given notice to quit, so do so at your own peril.

As you're living on an estate, some services must be being provided, such as street lighting for instance. What you need is a breakdown of what services are currently being provided, ie, gardening, insurance, management charges etc. & the cost for each.

It's no good trying to take an independent stance on this, what you must do is get together with neighbours & form a proper tenants/residents association to fight this. When you have done this you can start demanding answers from your local Councillor & perhaps get your MP on board too.

Disgruntled1967

Thanks Cattie, my nearest neighbours are behind this and I have been cc'ing them on every email so they do know that they are.

I don't know whether to speak to the other tenants on the road, some I know, most I don't, and ask them how they feel about paying for a service they don't appear to be getting.

I will email her again and ask for a full breakdown of what was provided, by whom and ask for receipts.

The other thing I do know is that the people in the private houses have not been paying any service charge for anything so if we are paying for street lighting and upkeep of the road before it is adopted by the council then that seems a little unfair.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

RAS

Why not make an appointment to speak to your ward councillor ands ask them to find out what the charges are about?

And bear in mind it says neighbourhood. So if you have grass verges by roads, parks, flowerbeds in shopping areas, signage, git spreading in the area, not just the estate, you may well be paying for them.