Charles Church/Persimmon Charges and Regs

southwales2007

I'm in the process of looking to move home. We've looked at a new build Charles Church property and after reading through the multitude of negative posts have second thoughts.

Anyway, during our discussion with the sales rep he mentioned there will be an annual charge of over £200 for shared area maintenance and a culvert. Firstly is this binding or would you be able to opt out?

Secondly, after reading about the many new homes which don't meet building regs, could you request the developer produce approval for the property or would it be something you'd have to look into yourself should you purchase?

Cheers.

arbrighton

You won't be able to opt out- it will be a leasehold and they will be payable.

Where on earth have you read about new homes which don't meet regs? Every single house built has to be signed off

southwales2007

Interestingly the house is freehold, hence my uncertainty about the site maintenance fee.

Can't remember exactly where I saw the building regs failure posts as I did a lot of googling but there are more than a few stories about this.

stator

Despite being freehold there will be an obligation registered with the land registry that you have to pay this maintenance fee. It can go up. It can also include large lump sum payments, you need to get firm details about what items will be the responsibility of the estate management company. Eg if there are any sewage pumping stations, streetlights, and roads. Are they committed to having the roads or utilities adopted by the council or utility companies?

ethank

I think it is a bit of a disgrace. They don't want to do the development up to an adoptable standard, thus they leave you to pay for it.

domcastro

Probably means NHBC certificate. I know their last lot of local houses didn't receive the NHBC guarantee. Also, they made people move in before Christmas - there's no mains water or gas. Big water tank and gas cylinders still feeding the properties a month later!

EDIT: On their website, they now have "
A 10 year warranty (NHBC or similar) is provided with every new Persimmon home."

Talc1234

stator wrote: »

Despite being freehold there will be an obligation registered with the land registry that you have to pay this maintenance fee. It can go up. It can also include large lump sum payments, you need to get firm details about what items will be the responsibility of the estate management company. Eg if there are any sewage pumping stations, streetlights, and roads. Are they committed to having the roads or utilities adopted by the council or utility companies?

Very common with new developments. Does make the look a bit more appealing (tidies up the public areas etc), so I don't mind paying (£109 for this year). Roads and utilities are all adopted so no surprise fees.

You can't opt out and if you fail to pay you can rack up some large charges. Also all outstanding bills need to be paid before completion should you wish to sell.

Georgesmum79

ethank wrote: »

I think it is a bit of a disgrace. They don't want to do the development up to an adoptable standard, thus they leave you to pay for it.

Sorry but that's not correct at all. Somebody has to maintain the common areas: grass cutting, hedge trimming, emptying rubbish bins etc. The Councils will not do this for new developments (and honestly, would you want them to; you'd probably get the grass cut once a year if lucky!), therefore the developer needs to arrange for this to be done. The development charges are there to pay for the maintenance of the common areas: usually the developer will sub-contract another company to do this, and they company will bill residents directly.


And as regards to the NHBC or similar cover: one of the builders locally (I think it was Taylor Wimpey) were advertising a 10 year cover from an organisation I had never heard of. It's not just CC who might use another guarantor for their builds. And in any case, the NHBC certificate is not worth the paper it's printed on as they will not sort out any issues post-completion. They will always find a way to wriggle out of it; similarly the builder will always refer you to the guarantor after any warranty period expires. Your house would need collapse to the ground before they would assist, and even then they would probably blame "act of God" . I would not be too concerned about using a guarantor other than NHBC, and in all honesty, all the new builds are much the same in quality, and what makes the difference is whether the site manager bothers to check any work or uphold standards.


We would not buy from CC again, not because there have been major issues with the house, but because the site manager could not be bothered to inspect anything and we had a list of comedy of errors going on in the house when we bought it. This kind of attitude just screams lack of respect for the customer, so that's why they will not get our money again.

Georgesmum79

stator wrote: »

Despite being freehold there will be an obligation registered with the land registry that you have to pay this maintenance fee. It can go up. It can also include large lump sum payments, you need to get firm details about what items will be the responsibility of the estate management company. Eg if there are any sewage pumping stations, streetlights, and roads. Are they committed to having the roads or utilities adopted by the council or utility companies?

What is included in the charge and how much it can be increased by year-on-year will be included in the contracts. The developer's solicitor should be able to provide a copy prior to exchange if you wanted to have a look. It would be very unlikely that these details would be left vague, and in any case, any property solicitor would question this if there were any ambiguities.