Buying house, seller "forgot" estate charges

Mckenna

Hi everyone.

Long story will condense as much as I can, we are trying to buy a house which a local housing association is selling, they are building two new Estates locally and trying to recoup some costs.

We had our offer accepted, have had searches, valuations and survey work done, all good.

It was at this point while sorting contracts, the housing association said they "missed" the estate charges on the original advert, these would cost just over £400 per year, having looked at the plan our property is excluded from maintenence it all revolves around other HA tennants front and rear lawns, waste and communal garden maintenance for a block of flats two streets back.
So in effect I would be paying to receive nothing.

*We have discovered that a number of privately owned houses on the estate do not pay these charges due an agreement reached with the HA 15+ years ago.* - Edit

We have told them this isn't acceptable and we will only buy should the charges be removed, they are being stubborn and say no, we either sign and buy or don't they don't care.

Where do we stand if we pull out with our incurred costs? I feel these charges should have been in the original advert (had they been we wouldn't have put an offer in)

Thanks in advance

Doozergirl

I don't see why they should be in an advert. I wouldn't expect a maintenance charge to appear in an advert, not even for a leasehold flat. It's part of due diligence and not unusual for there to be a maintenance charge on an estate.

In theory, the questions could have been asked and answered before other items on the conveyancing list without incurring other costs.

Mckenna

Thanks for the reply it's interesting to gather people's opinions.

I forgot to include that several privately owned houses much as this one would be do not pay these charges, an agreement reached with the HA some 15+ years ago.

Guest101

You wont be recovering your costs as there's no breach of contract.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Mckenna wrote: »

Thanks for the reply it's interesting to gather people's opinions.

I forgot to include that several privately owned houses much as this one would be do not pay these charges, an agreement reached with the HA some 15+ years ago.

That's not really relevant. This is the kind of thing one would expect to come out in the course of the transaction, and it has. You are free to continue or pull out, but nobody is going to pay your costs for you.

moneyistooshorttomention

In your position - I would regard that as a material fact that they should have mentioned at the outset AND be annoyed at the idea I was being expected to pay out money literally for nothing (courtesy of my house not receiving any maintenance).

Personally - I'd be in contact with someone as high up as you can find in the HA and point out those two facts and the exact wording of those other privately-owned houses not being due to pay it and see what the reaction was to that. (It might be worth openly speculating at the effect bad publicity would have on them in the local papers for trying to pull that stunt - ie their chances of finding other buyers for that house if you pull out).

I would be multiplying £400 x estimated time for rest of my life (say 50 years in your case?). That equals the house costing you £20,000 more than you offered/had accepted for it basically - and that's assuming they didn't ever put those costs up in real terms (and I bet they will.....).

Personally - I'd call their bluff and say "You have two choices - either you sell the house to me at sufficient discount to allow for those ongoing costs or option 2 is you forget the whole idea of selling to me. I'll just go and buy another house instead if need be. No skin off my nose". I'd mean it....:cool:

Worth trying - and, if it doesnt work,. then do indeed walk and find another house instead.

Out of interest - was the house put on the market for appropriately lower cost than other houses in the area of equivalent size/location/etc?

Mckenna

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

In your position - I would regard that as a material fact that they should have mentioned at the outset AND be annoyed at the idea I was being expected to pay out money literally for nothing (courtesy of my house not receiving any maintenance).

Personally - I'd be in contact with someone as high up as you can find in the HA and point out those two facts and the exact wording of those other privately-owned houses not being due to pay it and see what the reaction was to that. (It might be worth openly speculating at the effect bad publicity would have on them in the local papers for trying to pull that stunt - ie their chances of finding other buyers for that house if you pull out).

I would be multiplying £400 x estimated time for rest of my life (say 50 years in your case?). That equals the house costing you £20,000 more than you offered/had accepted for it basically - and that's assuming they didn't ever put those costs up in real terms (and I bet they will.....).

Personally - I'd call their bluff and say "You have two choices - either you sell the house to me at sufficient discount to allow for those ongoing costs or option 2 is you forget the whole idea of selling to me. I'll just go and buy another house instead if need be. No skin off my nose". I'd mean it....:cool:

Worth trying - and, if it doesnt work,. then do indeed walk and find another house instead.

Out of interest - was the house put on the market for appropriately lower cost than other houses in the area of equivalent size/location/etc?

Thanks for the reply, i didn't consider this option and we will give it a go, i would be happy even if they reduced the sale cost by 5-6k, this would cover about 15 years of the estate fees (by then alot will have changed in our lives with kids having grown up etc)

No, it was priced at the exact the same price as other houses in that street, another private house has just sold in the street this week for 6k less than what we have offered for ours.
And this was one of the houses that pay no estate fees.

Doozergirl

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

In your position - I would regard that as a material fact that they should have mentioned at the outset AND be annoyed at the idea I was being expected to pay out money literally for nothing (courtesy of my house not receiving any maintenance).

Personally - I'd be in contact with someone as high up as you can find in the HA and point out those two facts and the exact wording of those other privately-owned houses not being due to pay it and see what the reaction was to that. (It might be worth openly speculating at the effect bad publicity would have on them in the local papers for trying to pull that stunt - ie their chances of finding other buyers for that house if you pull out).

I would be multiplying £400 x estimated time for rest of my life (say 50 years in your case?). That equals the house costing you £20,000 more than you offered/had accepted for it basically - and that's assuming they didn't ever put those costs up in real terms (and I bet they will.....).

Personally - I'd call their bluff and say "You have two choices - either you sell the house to me at sufficient discount to allow for those ongoing costs or option 2 is you forget the whole idea of selling to me. I'll just go and buy another house instead if need be. No skin off my nose". I'd mean it....:cool:

Worth trying - and, if it doesnt work,. then do indeed walk and find another house instead.

Out of interest - was the house put on the market for appropriately lower cost than other houses in the area of equivalent size/location/etc?

Ridiculous. The housing association have already said that they don't care and that the OP can pull out, so you're behind anyway. Even my local paper wouldn't be interested in such a non-story.

If a balance has to be struck between educated opinion and wild conjecture on this board, you provide enough weight at one end to balance most of us.

teddysmum

Doozergirl wrote: »

I don't see why they should be in an advert. I wouldn't expect a maintenance charge to appear in an advert, not even for a leasehold flat. It's part of due diligence and not unusual for there to be a maintenance charge on an estate.

In theory, the questions could have been asked and answered before other items on the conveyancing list without incurring other costs.

We live on a private estate which has a communal wooded grassed area and a piece of maintained grassland which can be used as a play area, but we have no charges for this (lived here for over 44 years), so I would never expect fees to be the norm.


However, our son lives on a private estate, which has maintained garden strips along the streets and does pay an annual fee for their upkeep, but he was made aware of this when the house was purchased.

AdrianC

Mckenna wrote: »

I forgot to include that several privately owned houses much as this one would be do not pay these charges, an agreement reached with the HA some 15+ years ago.

So buy one of those instead.

But they aren't on the market. This one is.

You are looking at whether you buy THIS house with the charges that go with it, or whether you walk away from THIS house with the charges that go with it. Don't muddy the waters by trying to sellotape bits of other houses (which aren't an option) onto it.

As far as whether the service charges should be advertised or not - well, your solicitor has done his job. Thank him.

glasgowdan

It is bad of the HA to try and continue to charge for this property despite a potential new buyer highlighting the fact that none of the charges relate to the plot. What will they do if you don't pay? Why not try to find something relating to the original agreement between the HA and property owners? Something that states what the charges are for? Why not knock the door of a couple of the fee exempt houses and ask if they had to go through a process?

If it were me, and I liked the house, I'd not pay a penny, and instigate the process that the other houses went through.