Urgent. Massive service charges bill, eager states. Help!!

hb2

OP, you are right that your share of the communal costs is usually referred to as a 'management fee'. This includes the payment to the management company too. Exactly how they appear on an invoice can differ.

For comparison, we live in a block of 6 flats that were built 11 years ago. Our total management costs (including fee to management company) come in at around £100 per month/£1200 per year. This includes a small addition to the sinking fund.

Okrib

Nothing in that bill looks too out of the ordinary to me except the electricity bill which looks crazy.

Insurance is always a point to query, though with a broker the best rate should be being obtained. However, is the broker paying any commission back to the management company?

The sinking charge is a good thing.

Sapphire

DawnRose8 wrote: »

Unfortunately I couldn't afford a freehold/house with my divorce settlement. I had no experience of management companies but if I'd known it was Eagerstates I wouldn't have bought it.
I haven't got the lease out yet but I'm pretty sure it says increases must be 'reasonable'-whatever that means, is up for discussion.

I have a leasehold maisonette (two maisonettes in building). It has a long lease, which states that the upstairs looks after the upper half of the building, the downstairs looks after the lower half. This arrangement has worked very well, but then it is an old lease and I suppose it is only possible to have such an arrangement when there are just a couple of homes in a building, configured with two floors.

There is also no service charge (it was removed when I extended the lease, and had only been £100 p.a. anyway before).

It's the leases for blocks, especially new build ones, that appear particularly problematic, with people really being ripped off.

Just to add: your charges sound horrendously high.

Rosemary7391

BBH123 wrote: »

This sort of issue is fast becoming a national scandal and whilst there are some legitimate costs managing agents and Freeholders are using leasehold as a cash cow to invent scurrilous costs and charges.


You need to see about setting yourselves up with a RTM so you can take back control of your costs and manage the building yourselves.

This is much less fun than it sounds. Then you'll be the one on the receiving end of all the queries, running around for contractors who charge a tenner less per year, chasing people who don't pay their share etc etc. Personally I think the £20 a month to avoid all that isn't bad value!



You've got some pointers on what to question. But other things - eg the paving, no it shouldn't have got broken, but if it did and it needs fixed then you have to pay for it. My block gets occasional charges for rubbish removal and that shouldn't happen either, but it wouldn't be okay to just leave it there. Gutters need to be cleaned or they stop functioning and you get damp problems. Some things just need doing, and in any sort of shared building situation you don't have as much flexibility to just live with the problem and do it later as you would in a house.

Sapphire

eddddy wrote: »

Leases don't work like that. Service charges are the cost of maintaining/repairing the building etc.

A lease might last 100+ years. It's impossible to predict maintenance/repair costs for 10, 20, 50, or 100 years in the future - so no attempt will be made to do that in the lease.

Well, as explained above, according to my lease I take care of the bottom half of the building, and the upper half is taken care of by the owners of the above maisonette, an arrangement that works well, and there isn't any service charge. I also take care of my own insurance (always have done, in any flat or house).

Such an arrangement is far better than those that seem to be set up with the property companies that own large blocks, especially 'new builds', and which appear to regard the properties as a continuing source of revenue.

eddddy

wksd wrote: »

The block paving is going to be paid under protest as it shouldn't have broken in the first instance and needed to be repaired.

Just pulling out this specific comment, because it suggests that you don't understand how service charges work.

• It's not the management co's fault that the paving broke.

• The legal position is: You bought a lease that said you were responsible for maintaining and repairing the paving. So you should have checked the quality of the paving before buying the lease.

• Unless... it appears to be a newish conversion. Did the conversion come with any kind of warranty from the developer? If so, the warranty might cover the paving. So you would tell the management co to make a warranty claim from the developer.

By all means challenge the service charges - but it's best to concentrate on fighting the winnable ones.

Unless, there is some other reason why this charge is unreasonable, this might not be winnable.

fpdeal

Our block is also currently under Eagerstates management, it a total nightmare i dont think ive come across a worse company, we have just received a £3k service charge bill on top of £1k already paid for additional works in April last year.
Our block conversion is just 10 years old this month i've had the flat for just over 4 years and each year it gets worse as they demand more and more money, plus the law is on their side it seems. I would check who your freeholder is as if its Assethold Ltd its the same people different company name.
They will not stop over charging you. Start your RTM process immediately, knock on your neighbours flats and get a meeting arranged ASAP, best thing is to be open as your all in the same boat and you need 50% of the flats to form a RTM. We are over a year into the process and they will fight you at every step, im hoping this year we will see the end of them for good

Crashy_Time

Nightmare.

listless

Not a lawyer here, but yes, to be polite, Eagerstates are quite a nasty bunch to be afflicted with! Everything is set up to extract the maximum amount from the leaseholder for their freeholders, who 99% of the time would be Assethold.

Assethold Ltd is just an alter-ego shell company comprised of the same family who hide their address behind a PO box, presumably due to all the enemies they've made over the years, although it's not very difficult to unmask.

Don't let their intimidation and scare tactics stress you out, but I would recommend engaging a solicitor on this if it's your first rodeo, as you'll be able to get an idea of what portion of the service charge is worth contesting, if at all, or whether it's worth pursuing other options.

It is important to still pay ground rent and reasonable charges while strategising a way to remove them, if you are genuinely interested in protecting your property and truly investing in the future. Otherwise cut your losses and sell ASAP, but be prepared to pay for that too.

RTM is cheap but complex, as Eagerstates (and their ilk - look up Y&Y Management) will try and frustrate the process where possible. The only way to completely rid yourself of them is to perform collective enfranchisement and force them to sell you the freehold.

Collective enfranchisement is easier said than done in larger blocks, but I believe in your block of 6, given one other poster in this thread may be your neighbour, it might just possible to organise as you typically need 50% of leaseholders involved. If you're living with savvy neighbours you might get all of them involved. If cash strapped, there are options to handle the lump sum; for one, mortgage lenders may give a further advance for things like enfranchisement where you end up owning a share of the freehold. Remember it also represents an increase in property value, and ultimately as a freeholder yourself it is much cheaper to perform lease extensions should the need arise.

Anyway, get going, lawyer up quickly, document everything, and try not to let it get you down. It's just business for them, and the sun is setting on their exploitation of the leasehold system.

Feel free to PM with any questions - the fact these entities operate in this way is a scandal and I truly feel for anyone affected by them.