Surprise Greenbelt charges

mistalee

I have lived in my property for 8 years now and I have suddenly received a bill for £220 for greenbelt charges for estate I live in.

I know owners accross the road have who purchased their homes a few years ago at market value have been paying it but we never have. I assumed because we got our home through low cost home ownership scheme through the government.

If anyone could help advise whether we should be paying it or not i'd appreciate it

nidO

Check your deeds for a restrictive covenant (if freehold) or the terms of your lease (if leasehold) and see whether there's any information there on estate upkeep charges, if not then no you don't have to pay it, if so you probably do.

princeofpounds

Are these actually charges for the Green Belt, or charges from a company called GreenBelt?


I suspect the latter, based on a google search. And it has nothing to do with the Green Belt, and everything to do with some - allegedly - speculative invoicing.


Are you in Scotland by the way?

mistalee

princeofpounds wrote: »

Are these actually charges for the Green Belt, or charges from a company called GreenBelt?


I suspect the latter, based on a google search. And it has nothing to do with the Green Belt, and everything to do with some - allegedly - speculative invoicing.


Are you in Scotland by the way?

Its from a company called Ggreenbelt and Yes I'm in Scotland

ellie27

We pay management fees to a company Greenbelt who look after the shared green areas in our development. Pretty sure it says on our deeds too when we bought the house new.

I am in Scotland too.

If you own the house then I guess you should be paying the fees for the last 8 years?

mistalee

ellie27 wrote: »

We pay management fees to a company Greenbelt who look after the shared green areas in our development. Pretty sure it says on our deeds too when we bought the house new.

I am in Scotland too.

If you own the house then I guess you should be paying the fees for the last 8 years?

Never been made aware of having to pay this before. I'll have to check out the deeds. Its a bit expensive just for an area of unmaintained waist high grass and weeds behind my house too.

ellie27

mistalee wrote: »

Never been made aware of having to pay this before. I'll have to check out the deeds. Its a bit expensive just for an area of unmaintained waist high grass and weeds behind my house too.

Perhaps it is other green areas around the houses that are maintained. With us the green area behind our house is not maintained by them but it is other grass areas at the entrance to the development.

Is the £220 an annual fee? Or is that several years that you owe?

moneyistooshorttomention

mistalee wrote: »

Never been made aware of having to pay this before. I'll have to check out the deeds. Its a bit expensive just for an area of unmaintained waist high grass and weeds behind my house too.

Which introduces another way of looking at it - ie retaliating with a letter stating words to effect of "If you are responsible for maintaining the communal green areas then can you:
- Provide me with a list of areas you maintain
- Tell me what the maintenance work consists of (eg how often you mow the grass)"

and any other questions you can think of to get them to prove they are actually doing this maintenance work (ie because you can see they aren't - so it looks as if no work at all is being done for this maintenance charge).

I would be inclined, in your position, to list off all the communal green areas and list off when (if ever) I had noticed any work on doing them and the onus would then be on them to prove what they were doing in the way of maintenance I would have thought.

mistalee

ellie27 wrote: »

We pay management fees to a company Greenbelt who look after the shared green areas in our development. Pretty sure it says on our deeds too when we bought the house new.

I am in Scotland too.

If you own the house then I guess you should be paying the fees for the last 8 years?

I've checked my deeds and it's there as clear as crystal that I have to pay it. It's actually only about £14 a month. I've set up the direct debit now. At least I know for sure now.

Thanks all!

mistalee

I agreed to pay the £144 incl. VAT annual AMC fee by direct debit.

I received a letter from them in March last year confirming that cost. I started paying the fee in May which was £22.10 per month, I was lead to believe the reason for the higher cost this year was because we were already 3 months into the year so I had to pay the full fee over 9 months.

I am disputing paying so much at the moment and am withholding payments for a few reasons. Work on the derelict site directly behind my house is overgrown with weeds coming through our fences, other parts of the scheme not paying as they have never been contacted by Greenbelt group etc( that equates to 1 third of the development). I have told them I am happy to pay so long as it is fair charges between all and that areas are maintained properly.

Now, less than 1 year later, they say the fee is £265 and I must pay it or they will send debt recovery agents round. They say it was increased because a new phase was developed last year....there was no new phase developed last year! They also say the overgrown area is future development. Well it has been future development for 8 years now and is causing a problem.

Surely, despite me willing to pay the original fee(in line with inflation every other year) this is ridiculous and I surely have a case to refuse at least paying part of this given that they refuse to do anything about it.

eddddy

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Which introduces another way of looking at it - ie retaliating with a letter stating words to effect of "If you are responsible for maintaining the communal green areas then can you:
- Provide me with a list of areas you maintain
- Tell me what the maintenance work consists of (eg how often you mow the grass)"

and any other questions you can think of to get them to prove they are actually doing this maintenance work (ie because you can see they aren't - so it looks as if no work at all is being done for this maintenance charge).

I would be inclined, in your position, to list off all the communal green areas and list off when (if ever) I had noticed any work on doing them and the onus would then be on them to prove what they were doing in the way of maintenance I would have thought.

It might be good to find out more before pushing this.

Most managing agents hire contractors (e.g. gardening firms) to do work, and recharge the fees.

If you want the managing agents to maintain more areas or do more maintenance, they'll probably have to get the contractors in for longer, and pay them more - which will increase everyone's fees.

But obviously, if the contractors are being paid for something which they're not doing, that's a different matter. And perhaps report this to the managing agents.