Bellway Homes / Residential Management Group - Management Charge

buffness

InterestedParty2018 wrote: »

No, its not practical to cap the service charge for the maintenance of the communal areas shared with the other homes on the Estate/development.

The cost of any services (PI insurance, gardening, management etc) will always increase over the years.

You cant even cap it at RPI, as the level of expenditure will change. Therefore, a decent managing agent will set a reasonable budget for the year ahead. At the end of the year the accounts should be reviewed and ideally any "under spend" returned or "overspend" billed for. (the title may define how excesses or surpluses are dealt with.)

Here is a situation to consider: What if your Estate/Development has to deal with flytipping, and the culprit can not be identified. The council will not remove the debris as it is not their land. This is when the Estate Service Charge would have to step in. If the estate become a hot-spot for fly tipping (or the issue becomes reoccurring), not only will you be burdened with the repeat clearance costs, but also the residents may decide to install signage, or even CCTV. All of which would be borne by the Estate Service Charge.

Equally, there are many very well managed Estates, who are thankfully not burdened with extensive anti-social behaviour and their costs will hardly change year-on-year.

There is no magic ball which can foresee what will happen in the future. Make sure you read through and understand all your obligations. Consider the risk, and make an informed decision.

It is not always doom and gloom (otherwise nobody would buy a flat in a block or a house on an estate), just continue doing your research.

Understood and noted, thank you.

It's a difficult decision - having read the reviews online for Residential Management Group, it doesn't look good. Homeowners have stated that the company increase the fee year on year and that the increase is unjustifiable. When residents ask for accounts and other information from the Company, they are ignored.

I just wish that this area was regulated and controlled as it would sway my decision to go ahead with the purchase because at least I'd know that our complaints would be looked at.

InterestedParty2018

One further piece of advice. If you can, stay away from a managing agent that charges their fee based on a % percentage of the expenditure. That is crazy. Look for a fixed fee agent. (They may have add on's for involvement with major works, tribunal matters or similar, which is reasonable.)

Surely if they find that at the end of the year their fees do not cover their costs they should present it to their client and negotiate a higher fee. (or terminate their services.) Making up work, or not seeking the most competative rates for the client to secure a higher fee is not on.

FTBAngst

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46279048

Nymbus

buffness said:

Evening All,

After some advice if that’s okay please?

Yesterday, my partner and I paid £1000.00 to reserve a new build on a Bellway Home development.

When we were going through the paperwork, the sales advisor told us that the property was freehold but then said that there is a management charge that is estimated to be £100.00 per year. This is paid to maintain the area (grass cutting etc)The paperwork further states that ‘Bellway are providing this for guidance only’ - the management company Bellway use are ‘Residentidal Management Group’

After reading reviews online, we are now having second thoughts. Firstly, Bellway have said this is an estimate but people are saying that prices have drastically increased year on year with no recourse as the ‘contract has been signed’. Even worse; the company are increasing prices when they aren’t even doing any work.

What I don’t want to be faced with is the above - I will be asking our conveyancing solicitor to impose that they amend the clause to something more specific (for example, paying up to a maximum of...)

Has anyone ever experienced this?

The sales advisor at Bellway verbally told us that ‘the charge will only increase in line with RPI’ which is obviously not true as this isn’t actually mentioned in the paperwork so I’m not sure where she got this from (sales pitch perhaps...)

Any advice/help is greatly appreciated. Any other advice on Bellway new build homes is helpful too

Thank you
Vijay.

Hi, did you manage to get the contract amended successfully? My partner and I have decided to NOT pursue a purchase on a Bellway estate as we fear future problems. 

rachel230

You have made a wise decision.

Nymbus

rachel230 said:

You have made a wise decision.

So you have lots of problems? 

HanPop

We currently live in our second new build property so have always been subject to a service charge. On our old estate the price never went up, was £10 a month and they did all of the work asked of them. So we’ve never had a problem with it. I’m not sure what people expect developers to do when it is required that they have some green space on a new development but the council won’t look after it as they don’t have the budget. At least by paying someone to cut the grass etc the development doesn’t look like an overgrown mess.

Rachlou_25

It’s hard to get away from factor fees, I just bought a house built in 1995 and there’s a service charge for communal areas. 

I had a terrible experience with my last house (Stewart Milne new build) where I was told the cost would be about £250 a year, it was more like £400 a year.  The year before I sold, the factor changed and it went up to a whopping £700 a year out of nowhere.  The residents collectively raised a complaint to the factor and tried to get the council to take over the maintenance, not sure how it ended but I’m glad it isn’t my problem anymore! 

Nymbus

Rachlou_25 said:

It’s hard to get away from factor fees, I just bought a house built in 1995 and there’s a service charge for communal areas. 

I had a terrible experience with my last house (Stewart Milne new build) where I was told the cost would be about £250 a year, it was more like £400 a year.  The year before I sold, the factor changed and it went up to a whopping £700 a year out of nowhere.  The residents collectively raised a complaint to the factor and tried to get the council to take over the maintenance, not sure how it ended but I’m glad it isn’t my problem anymore! 

I have never had a house with fees. My first was a new build in 2009 and no fees. 

I’m not going to buy any house without it being truly freehold and in a council adopted development. 

An estate agent called me the other day about a house that had just come on to the market, it was on an estate I remember being built in about 2013 and I queried if there were any fees. They contacted the vendor who confirmed that there was a management fee so I declined the offer to view it. I’m standing firm on this and I believe of we all did so then new-build houses would not sella d in a very fast period of time change would come. As long as people feed this it will grow. We need to break the chain. 

comeandgo

I’m very happy with our management company and the fees.  Been here 15 years and costs only gone up a few pounds a year and the level of work is good as the residents control what is done.  If it was left to the council we would only get grass cutting twice a year.