Buying a house, solicitors inform about management company

ambrose90

Hi

I'm in the process of buying a house, all was going well up until a week ago when the owner's solicitors got back to mine telling them they require an agreement from a management company. Said company is Meadfleet, and I've already read all reviews about them on google and many topics around here.

We were looking into moving to the new house in January, but with this coming up it looks we'll miss that deadline. Our solicitors also were not able to get a response from Meadfleet yet, so we don't know how much the real charges would be, but instead they pulled charges from another sale of property, to give us an idea. According to them we'll have to pay:
£390 sale of property fee
£150 security deposit
+ any monthly charges Meadfleet comes back with (which range up £30 a month from what I've seen on google reviews).

Now, we want to pull out as this sounds like a terrible arrangement. The thing is we'll lose our money in the process. There are the copy "Homebuyers report" which we purchased from the mortgage company (£275), deposit for our solicitors (£300, but their total charges came to about £1700 and I have a feeling they will ask for the rest).

Are we doing the right thing here? The problem I'm seeing is that the property agency didn't advertise this to us beforehand. Their mortgage advisor is helping us in securing a mortgage but really we didn't pay them anything and I don't see any way we can claim damages from them.
Do we just put our tails between our legs and move on?

Also, our rental contract ends in January and the landlord already has someone to take our place, so we're effectively homeless. Starting new year we won't be moving into our first home and instead searching for another rental, tying us up for at least 6 months before we buy any house.

comeandgo

Most newer properties have management companies. Those charges are not bad. Pull out and you will loose all the money you have spent so far.

davidmcn

comeandgo wrote: »

Most newer properties have management companies. Those charges are not bad. Pull out and you will loose all the money you have spent so far.

Indeed - if you're looking at similar properties elsewhere it will be much the same story. The agents haven't highlighted it as something unusual because it isn't. No reason why the professionals you've engaged aren't entitled to be paid for what they've done so far.

ambrose90

comeandgo wrote: »

Most newer properties have management companies. Those charges are not bad. Pull out and you will loose all the money you have spent so far.

Really? Because these are highest that I've seen in my searches, since I've learned about Meadfleet.
And why is this happening more in the recent years? Why is it now that "most properties" need management companies than before? Why can't councils simply take care of that land?

Normalising this kind of practices is starting to worry me.

billy2shots

Very normal and becoming more common place with councils refusing to adopt roads etc on new developments.

If you want a new build or 'nearly ' new build, you should ask about management fees before deciding to make an offer.

Check what the management fee covers. If it's street lighting, roads and communal gardening then the fee hopefully won't get to high over the years. If there is a private sewerage pumping station then that can get costly.

comeandgo

ambrose90 wrote: »

Really? Because these are highest that I've seen in my searches, since I've learned about Meadfleet.
And why is this happening more in the recent years? Why is it now that "most properties" need management companies than before? Why can't councils simply take care of that land?

Normalising this kind of practices is starting to worry me.

I'd rather have the management company we use than rely on the council. We control what and when the management company cut grass, tidy trees, litter pick. We would have to pay tens of thousand of pounds to get the council to take over our estate.

davidmcn

ambrose90 wrote: »

And why is this happening more in the recent years? Why is it now that "most properties" need management companies than before? Why can't councils simply take care of that land?

Because councils have less money in recent years and aren't keen to "simply" add to the burden of the roads, landscaping etc they've got to maintain, when the property owners who benefit from it can do it instead. And by recent years I would say the last two or three decades, it isn't a particularly recent practice.

billy2shots

Everything in this world revolves around money and trying to make more of it.

Government is pushing to build more houses and in return maximise stamp duty by mobilising people who would otherwise rent by temping them with 'Help to Buy' etc.

Local councils refuse to adopt the roads and grounds of new developments but are happy to still receive full council tax.

Developers and politicians working hand in hand to scratch each other's backs.

helejenkins1

I completed on a house in South Wales 2 weeks ago. Meadfleet are also our management company. We had to pay the exact same costs as you. I’m not happy about it but worth it for my dream home.
They were very quick in responding to my solicitors although that may slow down over the festive season.

ambrose90

comeandgo wrote: »

I'd rather have the management company we use than rely on the council. We control what and when the management company cut grass, tidy trees, litter pick. We would have to pay tens of thousand of pounds to get the council to take over our estate.

I think you haven't read about Meadfleet then.

helejenkins1 wrote: »

I completed on a house in South Wales 2 weeks ago. Meadfleet are also our management company. We had to pay the exact same costs as you. I’m not happy about it but worth it for my dream home.
They were very quick in responding to my solicitors although that may slow down over the festive season.

Thanks for encouragement. Did they give an estimate of monthly charges as well? What work do they cover and how much did the estimate come to?

jonboy321

I do think that this highlights a real problem with the offers process in this country. The arrangement here does not seem unusual and it sounds like the seller has been upfront, but you have put in an offer not understanding some of the ins and outs of buying property. Now you are getting cold feet and looking to pull out, I pity the seller- who may have found somewhere else and had expenses of their own.
I know you are legally allowed to pull out, but this just seems a little ridiculous, and its things you could have easily found out about before making the offer.