OM Property Management and buying a Freehold house.

PaulW21781

Hi All

I'm a FTB and currently in the process of purchasing my first ever house (quite scary)... So far I'm up to the point where mortgage offer has been issued & now it's all down to the back&forth action between solicitors.

Yesterday, I got the Fixtures & Fittings form, as well as the Property Information Form. Fixtures & Fittings I'm OK with, however, few sections on the other which I'm a bit concerned about (2 sections of the form)...

Section 8 - Rights and informal arrangements.
8.1: Does ownership of the property carry a responsibility to contribute towards the cost of any jointly used services, such as maintenance of a private road, a shared driveway, a boundary or drain? If Yes, please give details:
See OM Property Management letter

Section 10 - Other charges
10.1: Does the seller have to pay any charges relating to the property (excluding any payments such as council tax, utility charges, etc.), for example payments to a management company? If Yes, please give details:
See Premium Payments to OM Property Management

But, at the time of looking at the house, through to making an offer & it being accepted, right up until now, I wasn't made aware of any Property Management issues. Nor has any other information been sent to me other than what I've quoted above.

Now, I've already done the usual Google checks, and looked on here, and needless to say it really doesn't fill me with much confidence. The house is being sold as 'Freehold' and the only shared bit is a tarmac driveway between the two properties which extends to the rear. There is no other communal area other than that. Now, I've asked my solicitors for more information relating to what this charge is for, and how much it is, however I'm starting to think that going from what I've read elsewhere, OM will probably be wanting a ridiculous amount of money to apparently 'manage' this bit of tarmac, so I've also asked about expressing my own 'Right to Manage'.

So firstly, what would you say is an acceptable amount to pay to manage just a bit of tarmac, which isn't a through road, and is just shared between 4 properties, and also, if the charges are excessive (I'd personally say £5/mo is what it should be) given how low maintenance it is, how would I go about getting shut of OM Property Management & just maintaining this small insignificant piece of tarmac myself.

It's an 8 year old development, and it is a mid-townhouse (the townhouses are in blocks of 3 properties).

Thanks

hazyjo

It is very common to pay a service charge on new estates. I moved from one last year - freehold townhouse, but the separate two garages (with a flat above) were classed as leasehold. There were also areas the management company maintained (and our garage insurance was covered) - the fee covered all that.

You will probably find the WHOLE area is covered, or at least areas near to your house, and possibly a garage/repainting or revarnishing doors.

Unfortunately it's not common for vendors to spell out the leasehold/charge bit. I wish it could be forced upon them to do so.

I think we paid somewhere between £100-200 a year for ours. Nearer £100-150 if I remember rightly. That did cover more than just a tarmac strip though. (Two garages' insurance, parking area, gardening, maintenance, etc.)

Jx

hazyjo

PS Was also OM Property Management.

PaulW21781

Well I've checked the land registry docs... They contain the following:

C: Charges Register

This register contains any charges and other matters that affect the land.

1 A Conveyance of the land in this title and other land dated 31 May 1945 made between (1) The Right Honourable John Lord Lilford Baron Lilford (Vendor) (2) George Algernon James Saltau Symons and (3) Staveleys Limited (the Company) contains covenants details of which are set out in the schedule of restrictive covenants hereto.

2 The land is subject to the following rights reserved by the Conveyance dated 31 May 1945 referred to above: "except and reserved the free and uninterrupted passage and running of water and soil coming from any other buildings or land adjoining or near to the said property in and through the sewers drains and watercourses which now are or may at any time hereafter be in or upon or under the said property and with power to use any sewers drains watercourses and ways under any part of the said property or under any adjoining or neighbouring land as the vendor or his assigns shall think proper without making any compensation in respect thereof.

3 The land is subject to the following rights reserved by a Conveyance thereof and other land dated 30 June 1980 made between (1) Staveleys Limited (Company) (2) Michael Anthony Jordan and Richard Anthony Stone (Receivers) and (3) Huliveron Limited (Purchaser):- "excepting and reserving unto the Company its successors in title tenants owners or occupiers of the adjoinining property of the Company known as South Works the rights set out in the Third Schedule hereto

THE THIRD SCHEDULE

above referred to
(1) The free and uninterrupted passage of water and soil through the pipes drains and watercourses and of electricity and gas through the cables wires and pipes which are now or may at any time during the period of eighty years from the date hereof in on under or passing through or over the Property and the right to repair maintain and renew such existing services and the right at any time but (except in emergency) after giving reasonable notice to enter (or in an emergency or after the giving of reasonable notice in the Purchaser's absence to break and enter) the Property in the exercise of such rights the person exercising such right making good any damage caused to the Property and any property therein.

4 (29.05.2007) A Transfer of the land in this title dated 27 April 2007 made between (1) Westbury Homes (Holdings) Limited and (2) (current owners of house) contains restrictive covenants.

NOTE: Copy filed.

5 (29.05.2007) The Transfer dated 27 April 2007 referred to above contains a reservation of a rentcharge as therein mentioned.

6 (03.02.2012) REGISTERED CHARGE dated 6 January 2012.

7 (26.07.2013) Proprietor: TSB BANK PLC........

And the picture of the layout... (I can't post an inline image... )

i58.tinypic.com/2vuzlf6.jpg

Green is what I assume is owned by neighbours within their property boundary.
Purple, I'm not 100% sure who owns that (could be adjacent neighbours)...
Yellow is, what I would assume, the shared portion of the tarmac.

The Pink section within the property boundary (red line) is the tarmac at the back where I can park, and as can see, it's within the defined property boundaries as shown by the land registry.

[Deleted User]

we are 5 freehold property owners and we share a parking area and a bit of tarmac and a 4m high retaining wall around the car parking. We manage our own management company but as it is a company we have to do it formally and get things signed off via an accountant.There is also communal insurance, maintenance of the area etc. We are in the second year and have all paid in £250 per property per year, we can see that being the same for the next 2-3 years until we have built up a pot in case of capital expenditure and then we can reduce it a bit

You cannot as an individual get rid of a property management co but all the owners could together take steps to form their own management company. It isn`t that straightforward because you will first have to obtain the leasehold as a group and that comes at a price, or maybe the freeholders already own the lease and have appointed the om group to manage. You need a lot more detail

There are also unscrupulous owners of ransom strips

Get all this clearly spelled out by your solicitor