Gas provider has monopoly in my building - and overcharging!

J_B

macman wrote: »

. If you spend upwards of (wild guess) £200K on a new build flat

Daughter of a friend just spend over double that on an 'old' flat in Londinium ....................

:eek:

macman

I was guesstimating on a minimum spend. OP has not come back with meaningful info, so we will probably never know.

footyguy

J_B wrote: »

Or perhaps your solicitor should have asked and informed you!

Absolutely.

If when buying a property you are being forced into any other specific obligation, e.g.ground rent, a maintenance contract, or in this case a supply contract, then your solicitor should have looked into this, checked the position of finances, and advised you accordingly.

e.g. a frequent issue with maintenance/service contracts is that the management company that often is involved can be in debt which you are effectively buying when buying the property ... or that there is no sink-fund provision in place for long-term maintenace. e.g. external painting every say 4 years, replacement windows every say 20 years (especially if wooden), replacement roof say every 50 years, etc.

The question also arises in all instances as to what provison, if any, is there to change these contractual charges. Again your solicitor should look into this and advise of the position.

macman

Hang on, don't shoot the lawyer! All the OP has said is that 'they' (by which I assume they mean the developer or sales agent) didn't tell me about 'it' (the system or service charge).
Since the OP didn't appear to inspect the heating system, it seems equally plausible that they didn't notice the service charges either in the paperwork. We may never know.