Covenant on House - Expensive extras added at last minute?

glasgowdan

That's out of line from them and I wouldn't buy the house, based on that alone. £200 to have their admin employee change a name on an account and send a final invoice to the old owner? That should be covered under their management fee. Then the price rises they're displaying are way beyond acceptable.

Sorry, I've no idea what can be done about them other than to avoid.

glasgowdan

Also, roughly how many houses do you think cover this area? Is it JUST for grass cutting? And how big do you think the area is? (address for google maps and I'll have a look?) I am a ground maintenance contractor and I'd be able to tell what range of prices the work should come under.

dc197

Davesnave wrote: »

So, you didn't walk around the whole area several times before deciding to make the purchase?

Amazing!

Indeed, one should always walked around the neighbourhood, speak to neighbours, etc, before exchanging.
Luckily, you have not exchanged, and this has come to light before you're committed, so you still have the chance to abort the purchase.

dc197

Can you post the wording of the covenant and contract so we can analyse it better please?

shauna4419

Davesnave wrote: »

So, you didn't walk around the whole area several times before deciding to make the purchase?

Amazing!

Appreciate how that sounded but we have house searched for 1 year and can assure you there has been no jumping in to this property. As some context, we've actually lived about 5 minutes from the area in question our whole life and know it very well. We have viewed 4 houses on the estate with the owners directly so we have had a good idea of it, and we spoke to who would be our neighbours a few weeks back - we are just surprised no one mentioned it, but everyone had lived there 6+ years so assumed it is probably just another expense they don't really think about.

Also, if you saw where our house is, and how TINY the area in question is, you can see why it would be overlooked on our walk rounds. It looks like the front garden area of a circle of properties outside the 100s, and the one we want to look into is number 9.

shauna4419

Its for grass cutting and shrub maintenance, on a 10ft by 6-8ft area if you can believe.

There are 79 houses that pay, we think.

D_M_E

79 houses each paying £120 - that's £9480 per year.

How are they cutting the grass? With a pair of scissors?

How are they trimming the bushes? With trained silkworms on silken threads for leads, munching their way around the bushes under the sleepy - watchful - eyes of a bored taskmaster?

Such fees are far too much for so small an area and, as others have pointed out, there appears to be no limit to what the charges can become.

A very good reason to pull out now.

moneyistooshorttomention

The phrase "money for old rope" is definitely coming to mind - particularly as you say they arent even doing it very often.

That must be a blimmin' high hourly rate to say the least:eek:. Personally - in the neighbours' position - I'd be handing this firm a list of dates they had done the grass-cutting during the last year and what their start and finish times were and then saying "According to my calculations that means you were charging £x per hour for this grass-mowing. Can you please explain why you feel it is appropriate to charge £200 (for the sake of argument) per hour for grass-mowing - when the going rate is between £10-£15 per hour gross."

glasgowdan

It sounds like the maintenance is for more than just this area. The whole estate will need litter picked, moss treatment on pavements, there may be other grass and shrub areas, any block paving car park areas need sprayed for weeds. It's NOT just for this area you're describing as that would be something like a £50-60 per visit type job x16 annual.

glasgowdan

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The phrase "money for old rope" is definitely coming to mind - particularly as you say they arent even doing it very often.

That must be a blimmin' high hourly rate to say the least:eek:. Personally - in the neighbours' position - I'd be handing this firm a list of dates they had done the grass-cutting during the last year and what their start and finish times were and then saying "According to my calculations that means you were charging £x per hour for this grass-mowing. Can you please explain why you feel it is appropriate to charge £200 (for the sake of argument) per hour for grass-mowing - when the going rate is between £10-£15 per hour gross."

The going rate isn't £10-15 per hour.

If it's a one hour job, the team need to travel to site and will, as with ANY professional, have a minimum charge per visit to make sure the company remains viable. So a 1hr contract visit per fortnight I'd charge at least £50.