does the maintenance company have to be honest?

bytejunkie

hi,

i own through a mortgage an apartment on a nice estate. however, since being taken into management it has become obvious that the management company are thieves. of oxygen and money.

for instance. their budgets (not accounts) are supposed to be within 10% they say. however they budgeted for 56k insurance for the properties but actually are paying 12k

im not a lawyer, so have struggeld to read the landlords act and see if any fo that applies. so does anyone know of the principles if a management company are supposed to be honest? open? if possible, i'll query every inoice with them to see just how much they are ripping us off.
the service charge went up 15% this year and the gardeners now don't weed or pick litter up. service is actually getting worse.

so yeah, can i take them to task for their outrageous nonsense budgets?
is there a maximum fee they are allowed to apply?

any help is much appreciated.

anselld

bytejunkie wrote: »

hi,

i own through a mortgage an apartment on a nice estate. however, since being taken into management it has become obvious that the management company are thieves. of oxygen and money.

for instance. their budgets (not accounts) are supposed to be within 10% they say. however they budgeted for 56k insurance for the properties but actually are paying 12k

im not a lawyer, so have struggeld to read the landlords act and see if any fo that applies. so does anyone know of the principles if a management company are supposed to be honest? open? if possible, i'll query every inoice with them to see just how much they are ripping us off.
the service charge went up 15% this year and the gardeners now don't weed or pick litter up. service is actually getting worse.

so yeah, can i take them to task for their outrageous nonsense budgets?
is there a maximum fee they are allowed to apply?

any help is much appreciated.

Are the thieves of Capital letters also?

Their budget is largely irrelevant. Service charges will eventually be based on actual spend so if they spend £12k on Insurance that is what they may charge. They cannot charge £56k and only spend £12k.

eddddy

Could you be comparing an annual budget with a quarterly service charge bill?

As anselld says, you will be charged according to what is actually spent.

This would apply to the gardening contractors as well. If the management co asks the gardeners to do weeding and litter picking, I guess the gardeners would charge more, so your service charge would increase.

(If the gardener's used to do this, I guess the management co told them to stop in order to save money.)

bytejunkie

Don't get a great auto correct existence on phone do not a lot of capitals.

They say the budgets are based on last year's figures but now we have access to three years worth that's not stacking up. In addition when the accounts come out , always 9 months late so we can't challenge them, there is always a deficit in some schedule that makes up for the massive over charge.

Is there a legal basis for the statement that they can only charge what they pay?

Thanks for the replies.

eddddy

bytejunkie wrote: »

Is there a legal basis for the statement that they can only charge what they pay?

They can charge what it says they can charge in your lease.

But... I can pretty much guarantee that your lease won't say they can charge £56k for a £12k insurance policy.

TBH, I'm pretty certain you have misunderstood the accounts.

(Are you absolutely sure that you are not comparing a quarterly number to an annual number? Or that the £56k doesn't refer to some repairs etc?)

moneyistooshorttomention

Out of interest - if the gardeners arent doing the weeding - then just what are they doing?

glasgowdan

The gardeners must do weed control. Maybe they've just had some rainy day and been unable to spray

Hoploz

If the gardeners are not doing what is necessary, residents should be complaining to the management co to say this. Unless the management co make site visits, they will be unaware.

They will prob have different work schedules at different times of year, when things need doing more or less. Check these details. If they aren't doing what has been agreed, that is different to not doing what needs doing. You need to check which it is - most likely is the gardening firm has a new employee who isn't pulling is weight.

AdrianC

If they really did budget for £56k, but actually only spent £12k, then they should be applauded. The accounts will be much healthier than they were expected to be, since £44k has been saved compared to the prediction.

I also think the OP has utterly misread/misunderstood the accounts.

bytejunkie

unfortunately, i havent misread. ive since found a thread on foulbusiness.co.uk where the exact same number comes up. it seems they might have a default budget that they apply to all sites.

gardeners are cutting grass in the communal areas, but not weeding. the bushes are massively overgrown, they arent being trimmed. there is litter in the garden areas which i pick up when i walk the dog.

to give you an idea how clueless they are, they asked me to remove and make right an outside tap on my property. the outside tap was put in by the developer before we moved in. im not sure where there is an obligation for me to remove it?

ill go over the accounts again. make doubly sure i understand them. then i'll summarise and pdf them to show you all.

meanwhile, what would you knowledgable folks do? make an official complaint? name and shame them in local media? write to fellow residents? the developer has made it clear they arent interested in knowing about the performance of the management company.

eddddy

bytejunkie wrote: »

meanwhile, what would you knowledgable folks do? make an official complaint? name and shame them in local media? write to fellow residents? the developer has made it clear they arent interested in knowing about the performance of the management company.

You need to decide what your complaints are, then you can decide who to complain to.

For example, is one of your complaints one of the following:

1) The management company are paying the gardeners to do the weeding, but the gardeners are not doing it (if so, tell the management company - they may not know.)

or...

2) The management company are not paying the gardeners to do any weeding, but you would like them to (if so, ask the management co to pay for weeding to be done - and expect to pay a larger service charge as a result.)

or...

3) The management company have chosen excessively expensive gardeners (if so, discuss with the management company, and then consider taking your complaint to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.)