leasehold property maintenance cost- is this reasonable?

resilie

Hi

I bought a tiny leasehold flat in a converted Victorian house about a year and half ago. The freeholders live in one of the other 3 flats and are lovely if a bit chaotic. They rent out the other 2 flats so I am the only other owner occupier there. They "run" the place so no management company etc.
I now got a bill for the Annual Maintenance Cost which even though it doesn't look completely unreasonable it does look made up with only round numbers!
Breakdown:
Insurance 1200
Common Way Cleaning 100
Common Way Electricity 100
Maintenance Fees 600
total 2000

they are asking for me to pay 20% so 400. There is no heating in the common area and I only pay about 180-200 myself for all my electricity so 100 for the 3 light bulbs in the hall seems to much. As far as I can tell from the electricity meters in the hall there is no separate meter for those though. Also not sure what the maintenance fee is suppose to have covered? There was an issue with the front door lock which they sorted and the flat above me had a shower leak resulting in the need to get my ceiling and 1 wall redecorated but surely that shouldn't come out of overall maintenance as it was due to their dodgy builder doing a shabby job on the shower room in the first place.

No the guys are lovely and I don't want to get into a big fight about this so how could I sensitively ask them to clarify these points or should I suck it up and pay for the sake of keeping the peace. However then they will ask for this sum every year and I just like to know what the money goes on really.

any help/insights appreciated

Thanks

PS I know service charges are huge in new builds and this is tiny by comparison but it's a matter of principle I think

pinkpiglit

Tea and cake. Pop round, act a bit dim (new-ish resident, first bill, want to understand better so you can budget going forwards etc) and see how things develop. Just be friendly and not confrontational, and hopefully the conversation will develop naturally.


I'd have thought the dodgy builders own insurance would have covered the leak upstairs (if it can be proven it was his work and not just an old shower, in which case it would probably be under the general buildings insurance) so that's something you can ask about.

Airwolf20721

Sounds about right to me and that cheaper than i pay.. I live in a purpose built flat (4), The flatowners own the lease. We all pay 30 pounds a months, i do the accounts but at work at the moment and here a breakdown or some
900-1000 for building insurance
10+ month eletric only 2 lights but by law they have to stay on 24/7
150 a year for the fire alarm people to test them. without this we cant have insurance.
Rest get save in the bank for maintance that crop up eg we getting the guttering and outside wall painted this year and new carpets so about another 800.
We use to pay a cleaner but now we do it and bill them.

ognum

What were the costs last year before you bought? You solicitor should have found out all this information for you. Did they?

To me it sounds a lot. I own several purpos built flats in blocks, they hav gardeners, cleaning of common areas, lighting of common areas, insurance, health and Safety assessments, maintainence and repairs and I do not pay more than £1000 ponds service charge for any of them. I certainly would not hav proceeded with a purchase without knowing the costs.

eddddy

resilie wrote: »

Hi
they are asking for me to pay 20%...

So does your lease say you have to pay 20%?

You can ask the freeholder for a copy of all the relevant bills/receipts, if you like - to make sure things add up. And that they're only charging you for the stuff that the lease allows them to.



TBH, if you ask for the bills/receipts and they don't provide them within one month, they're committing a criminal offence (but I suspect you don't want to get heavy with them over that).

3.4 Rights to further information (inspecting accounts and receipts) (Section 22 Landlord & Tenant Act 1985)

As well as receiving the summary, the leaseholder has the right to inspect documents relating to his service charge as a follow-up to provide more detail on the summary. Within a period of six months from receipt of the summary, the service charge payer (or the secretary of a recognised tenants’ association) may write to the landlord requiring him to allow access to and inspection of the accounts, receipts and any other documents relevant to the service charge information in the summary and to provide facilities for them to be copied.

...

Where a landlord fails without reasonable excuse to comply with either a request for a summary or to inspect supporting documents they commit a summary offence on conviction and are liable for a fine of up to £2,500

Link: http://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/service-charges-and-other-issues/#14