Unexpected Management Fee

emv

We bought a house in a private village & the deeds stated that we should pay a fair share of costs associated with communal land. In fact the land is still owned by the developer & won't become communal until 2019 or so.

At the time of the purchase, this was estimated at £250/property and has been less than that in each year so far. This year, we got a bill just after Christmas for £620 (actually double that as we pay 2 shares). I have disputed the bill at it was payable within 14 days & that's over 2 months' income for us. The increase is due to under-estimated electricity bills for last 18 months apparently.

I do have an issue with why no-one took a meter reading over the last 18 months & why the £5k excess bill was incurred.

But also I have just found out that the other residents on site are apparently all part of a residents committee which was informed some time ago about the excess bill, so they all had much more notice of the fee to pay. I think I should be able to legitimately ask for the same amount of time to pay as the notice they had, does that seem reasonable? We've been threatened with legal action, which I hope is on hold at the moment as I have formally disputed the bill due to receiving no details of how the charge has been calculated.

Em

kinger101

When did you move in? If you're not been there for the whole 18 months, I'd be inclined to tell them to recalculate your share based on how long you actually have lived there. Other than that, try reading whatever documentation you have to see whether they have the right to charge you for past accruals.

And how the hell are they using so much electricity! The £1240 you've been asked to pay would cover my home for 4-5 years. You must have a lot of street lamps in your village.

moneyistooshorttomention

Personally - I'd be asking for proof of the fact that you were notified in writing at the same time as everyone else.

They won't be able to produce that proof - as they didn't do so by the sound of it.

Surely a court (if it came to it) would expect that you would have a "reasonable" amount of notice. In your position - I'd be googling leasehold flats (yes I know you're not leasehold....) as a comparator to yourselves and seeing what they have in the way of notice/maximum size a bill can be (£250 actually) and stating you regard it as reasonable to have no worse terms than that.

I'd also be checking just who the electricity supplier was - ie had the residents association agreed who that supplier is to be or has the first one to hand (ie probably the dearest one then) been automatically chosen by the developer.

tim123456789

kinger101 wrote: »

When did you move in? If you're not been there for the whole 18 months, I'd be inclined to tell them to recalculate your share based on how long you actually have lived there.

Unfortunately, the person in ownership at the time is liable for the whole bill on that date that it is requested

any apportionment with a previous owner is the current owner's problem

emv

We've lived there 2.5 years so definitely liable. Private sewage plant seems to be using £5k electricity pa. (No lighting at all here!) The company that put in the meter is the supplier, supply was split when we moved in as whole village shared one meter until then. There are much better offers out there, have checked that.

I've asked for notes of residents meetings, not sure if any were ever taken. Good idea re checking with leasehold service charges, thanks.

kinger101

You should probably get yourself onto the residents committee.

NeilCr

The residents committee, though, may have got the actual bills at the same time as you

I am a director of our estate and we do hear things like this before other residents. We may have to make a decision, sometimes on them. But our bills go out at the same time and we pay at the same time

emv

Yep, kinger101, just need to find out where & when meetings are! Neighbours all objected to a planning application we put in last year, suspect we have been ostracised because of that :-(

emv

NeilCr, the latest e-mail that I had from the developer's PA said that the residents committee had been informed of the extra charges at previous meetings (plural) which I think implies that they did all know about it sooner than we did :-(

NeilCr

emv wrote: »

NeilCr, the latest e-mail that I had from the developer's PA said that the residents committee had been informed of the extra charges at previous meetings (plural) which I think implies that they did all know about it sooner than we did :-(

I'm not disagreeing with that. As I said we hear about things like that as a committee first too. With us, we have to agree to the annual budget - we may sometimes use reserves to pay off extra charges etc. It's part of how we work anyway that issues like this will go to the committee before other residents hearing

What I was saying was that we (the committee) get the bills for the charges at the same time as the other residents.

emv

The developer's rationale for expecting us to pay immediately was that we should have known about it via the Committee so even if not everyone attends, it does sound like the role is to disseminate information, and that didn't come to us :-(