New Build Home - Unreasonable Demand for Payment?

darenmatthews

davidmcn wrote: »

I expect the £250 was just part of some vague marketing spiel, in practice they're not likely to guarantee anything beyond the current year's charges. And while the 14 days is unreasonable, you should really have budgeted something for the day when they caught up with you...

I agree that with hindsight that is how it seemed when it was mention offhandedly when I was buying (off-plan).

And point taken but I wasn't hiding anything. It is simply that a lot was going on at the time. It was only the second property that I have bought (I'm 55 if you wondered). I do remember querying it at the time of sale and seeking clarification but it was vague. But as you can imagine, a lot was happening at the time...

Having never received a demand for what was a small fee did go "off my radar" so to speak.

The house purchase has a two-year Customer Service period where any problems are ironed out. I have to say that the company / builder has been excellent in this regard. No complaints.

But this maintenance of what amounts to trees and shrubs in the road whilst welcome has always been vague and I have asked about it twice, over the past 18 months or so, during calls about faulty pipes (quickly remedied by them) and so on.

At least it is now becoming clear and the parties involved have finally revealed themselves - along with this demand for payment. Up until now the builder has been rather coy about this.

moneyistooshorttomention

That figure is, presumably, made up of:

- £250 for year 1 (ie the year we are currently in)
- £250 in advance for year 2 (ie year starting October 2016).

Dont know where the £200 would come from? My guess would be a huge "annual inflation rise" imposed at end of Year 1?

This is where you need something in writing about those annual charges and look for the bit that says what happens about annual inflation rises (ie there ought to be something there limiting them to no more than something like RPI, CPI, 5% or suchlike). I know things are different with flats for instance. But this is a house and you are entitled to expect it to be a perfectly standard house in all respects. Standard houses don't have annual maintenanc charges - but some newbuild ones have got that these days. However - this is for services Councils normally provide - and Councils can't go raising their rate of Council Tax much each year and surely these new things of "annual maintenance charges on standard houses" must run along somewhat similar lines?

Hopefully the law will back these charges for "what should be done by the local Council" having to be at no higher inflation rises than Councils can charge? - I'd be checking the paperwork for your particular house and I'd be checking what the law has to say about this.

Back to the immediate bill - and they were the ones that created the problem (ie overlooked giving you what appears to be a "year in advance" bill when you moved in). So the onus is on them to be (very) flexible about payment terms for it. If this ended up in a small claims court - then the judge would be highly likely to decree that you could pay in reasonable installments after all....

agrinnall

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

That figure is, presumably, made up of:

- £250 for year 1 (ie the year we are currently in)
- £250 in advance for year 2 (ie year starting October 2016).

Dont know where the £200 would come from? My guess would be a huge "annual inflation rise" imposed at end of Year 1?

It's been clear from post #5 that £250 was never the correct amount. Although the correct amounts also don't add up to £700 so something is still amiss with the demand.

Thrugelmir

darenmatthews wrote: »

My problem is that I cannot afford to pay this amount in that small amount of time. I am also concerned that fees will increase. I accept that it needs to be paid but I cannot do it in 14 days.

Offer to pay a monthly amount by standing order which progressively reduces the arrears.

rtho782

This is the issue with new builds. We know a couple who have just managed to sell their former new build, they were promised £200 a year in charges but in the 4 years they lived there, it had gone up to nearly £800.

As freeholders they had no right to challenge the charges, and while they had to be representative of costs, the management company director could just pay his other company £10,000 per hour to cut the grass and rebill it to the freeholders, there was nothing they could do.

I'd never buy a newbuild with one of these estate charges!!

darenmatthews

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

That figure is, presumably, made up of:

- £250 for year 1 (ie the year we are currently in)
- £250 in advance for year 2 (ie year starting October 2016).

Dont know where the £200 would come from? My guess would be a huge "annual inflation rise" imposed at end of Year 1?

This is where you need something in writing about those annual charges and look for the bit that says what happens about annual inflation rises (ie there ought to be something there limiting them to no more than something like RPI, CPI, 5% or suchlike). I know things are different with flats for instance. But this is a house and you are entitled to expect it to be a perfectly standard house in all respects. Standard houses don't have annual maintenanc charges - but some newbuild ones have got that these days. However - this is for services Councils normally provide - and Councils can't go raising their rate of Council Tax much each year and surely these new things of "annual maintenance charges on standard houses" must run along somewhat similar lines?

Hopefully the law will back these charges for "what should be done by the local Council" having to be at no higher inflation rises than Councils can charge? - I'd be checking the paperwork for your particular house and I'd be checking what the law has to say about this.

Back to the immediate bill - and they were the ones that created the problem (ie overlooked giving you what appears to be a "year in advance" bill when you moved in). So the onus is on them to be (very) flexible about payment terms for it. If this ended up in a small claims court - then the judge would be highly likely to decree that you could pay in reasonable installments after all....

Thank you that is helpful.. Yes it is a concern and this evening when arriving home from work, I found four sets of neighbours all huddled in a group, discussing this demand and the potential for rises as you mentioned

darenmatthews

rtho782 wrote: »

This is the issue with new builds. We know a couple who have just managed to sell their former new build, they were promised £200 a year in charges but in the 4 years they lived there, it had gone up to nearly £800.

As freeholders they had no right to challenge the charges, and while they had to be representative of costs, the management company director could just pay his other company £10,000 per hour to cut the grass and rebill it to the freeholders, there was nothing they could do.

I'd never buy a newbuild with one of these estate charges!!

Thank you and yes you hit the nail on the head. It isn't really the current demand which I will only offer to pay in installments, which I think they ought to regard as reasonable. The problem is just as you describe. They can charge what the want, when they want. That is worrying and I will be trying to see how the Law applies.

rtho782

darenmatthews wrote: »

Thank you and yes you hit the nail on the head. It isn't really the current demand which I will only offer to pay in installments, which I think they ought to regard as reasonable. The problem is just as you describe. They can charge what the want, when they want. That is worrying and I will be trying to see how the Law applies.

Leaseholders have protections, freeholders do not. There is nothing to protect you, you can't even take over the management as leaseholders can.

Sorry

darenmatthews

rtho782 wrote: »

Leaseholders have protections, freeholders do not. There is nothing to protect you, you can't even take over the management as leaseholders can.

Sorry

No problem and yes, you are 100 percent right.

I did further research and saw many posts such as this:
http://www.boltburdon.co.uk/blogs/legal-update-section-20b-landlord-tenant-act-1985-act-relating-service-charge-demands-residential-properties/

And what will I do? Luckily I am not really happy here. And this in a funny way impinges upon my freedom. So I am going to put this house on the market and take a short let in a friends house, then look around for something maybe a little smaller.

If it wasn't for the kind insights here and nudges in the right direction, I wouldn't have fully understood this arrangement with house builders.

Thanks all, ever so much,
Daren.