Management Company Shared Parking Area

xxandyxexx

Hi,

I am in the process of selling my house. There is a shared drive way to private parking behind electronic gates for 4 hours (including mine). All these 4 houses are freehold properties. The Management company just maintain the shared drive way (not the parking spaces, they are owned by the house owners) and electronic gates.

The Management Company are quoting me £600+ for all the relevant files to pass onto my solicitor to pass onto the buyers solicitors.

But I was never sent a copy of what they include in their packs when purchasing the property (property is a new build and I am the first owner). Surely they should of provided this to me, or at least send me copies of these upon request.

Here's their "Sales Pack Menu".

[FONT=&quot]PRE SALES ENQUIRY OPTIONS[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]PACK DETAILS[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Repossession/Comprehensive Information Pack – [/FONT][FONT=&quot]guaranteed within 48 hours[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Contains the standard pack plus Memorandum & Articles of Association and Copy of H & S Risk Assessment and Asbestos survey (if applicable). Please note instructions for this pack must be issued to us before 12.00 noon.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£450.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Standard Information Pack – [/FONT][FONT=&quot]guaranteed within 7 working days[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Pack Includes:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Replies to enquiries raised (24 in total, over this amount there will be a further charge) regarding the development and/or block, including Lease information, Insurance, Service Charge and Ground Rent, Maintenance and Expenditure and advice on Notices[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Copy of last three years Accounts (where available)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Copy of current years Budget[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Copy of Insurance Certificate[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Summary of Insurance Cover (where applicable)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Statement of Leaseholders/Freeholders account[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Deed of Covenant if applicable[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£342.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Financial Information Pack – [/FONT][FONT=&quot]guaranteed within 10 working days[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£150.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]___________________________________________________________________________[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Memorandum & Articles of Association[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£48.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Copy of H & S Risk Assessment [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£36.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Copy of Asbestos Survey[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£36.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Copy of Insurance Certificate and Full Insurance Policy [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£42.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]___________________________________________________________________________[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]COMPLETION DOCUMENTATION[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Deed of Covenant [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£162.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Consent to Transfer/Certificate of Compliance (or any other Consents)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£150.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Notice of Assignment/Mortgage/Charge/Transfer[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£150.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT][FONT=&quot] per notice[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Re-issue of Share/Membership Certificate[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]£72.00 [/FONT][FONT=&quot](VAT inc)[/FONT]

If anyone can shed any light on where I stand with all this and what I should be entitled to without charge, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

eddddy

If your property was leasehold, there would be legislation to protect you, and there would be ways of challenging unreasonable admin charges from managing agents

But there is no equivalent legislation for freehold property owners.

The 'legal' (but unhelpful) argument would be that you entered into an agreement with the management company when you bought your house. Before entering into that agreement, you should have investigated admin fees etc.

If you didn't like the fee structure (or the lack of control over fee increases) you shouldn't have bought the house and entered into the agreement.


From a practical perspective, as you are now trying to sell, it's probably not a good idea to get into a dispute with the management company - which you might have to declare to your buyers.

dgtazzman

Those charges seem ridiculous. I just completed the sale of a property with a similar set up yesterday, luckily for me, the management company hadn't taken over yet, the builders were still on site and decided not to hand over to the management company for at least another 6 months, so I avoided the hassle and costs.

I'd like to know how they can justify charges like £36.00 for a photocopy, 10 minutes of somebody's time and a stamp.

I'm so happy after reading this post my next house won't have a management company involved

Marktheshark

Subject Access request £10 for all documentation they hold to which you are a party.
Worth a punt.

DandelionPatrol

I think I would be knocking on the other doors, showing them the quote and suggesting a lot of noise about changing the Management Company.

eddddy

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

I think I would be knocking on the other doors, showing them the quote and suggesting a lot of noise about changing the Management Company.

Unfortunately, the freehold owners of the houses may have no way of forcing a change in the Management Company (unlike leaseholders would).

Here's a guide that discusses service charges for freehold house owners: http://arma.org.uk/downloader/f15.pdf

xxandyxexx

eddddy wrote: »

If your property was leasehold, there would be legislation to protect you, and there would be ways of challenging unreasonable admin charges from managing agents

But there is no equivalent legislation for freehold property owners.

The 'legal' (but unhelpful) argument would be that you entered into an agreement with the management company when you bought your house. Before entering into that agreement, you should have investigated admin fees etc.

If you didn't like the fee structure (or the lack of control over fee increases) you shouldn't have bought the house and entered into the agreement.


From a practical perspective, as you are now trying to sell, it's probably not a good idea to get into a dispute with the management company - which you might have to declare to your buyers.

They have no documentation of me signing any agreement, or ever sent me this documentation.

xxandyxexx

Marktheshark wrote: »

Subject Access request £10 for all documentation they hold to which you are a party.
Worth a punt.

Will give it a shot! cheers!

G_M

Marktheshark wrote: »

Subject Access request £10 for all documentation they hold to which you are a party.
Worth a punt.

You need to specify what information you want.

And Subject Access requests apply to personal information I believe, whereas this would appear to be related to the property ......

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/

Emcarter

Did you get to the bottom of this? I'm having similar issues with a Managing Agent. Seem the can charge what they like and there is no regulation / consumer protection. I'm starting a petition to request the industry is regulated as the current state of affairs is ridiculous. My "agreement" is my TP1 that lists out proposed charges - they charge for much more than listed and do a dreadful job. There is something that says they can charge £65 when I move and that is essentially so they can make sure the purchaser signs up to them too. They've charges neighbours who moved recent,y between £150 and £250 + VAT. It's crazy that as freeholders you have no rights and can't get rid of these dishonest companies - Leaseholders ave loads of protection so why don't we? I will post petition on here when I get it up and running - need at least 10000 signatures to get a response and 100000 for it to be debated in parliament - worth a shot!