Leasehold: managing agent mission creep

prudence2

Converted Victorian house containing four flats.

Barring four-yearly external redecoration, there has been zero 'maintenance' (as opposed to 'reaction to problems') in the 20+ years I've been here.

The managing agents have suddenly decided that we need regular window / gutter / drain / common parts carpet cleaning. They're not a communicative bunch: there was no letter telling us these changes were coming; instead they just appeared as items on the 2019/20 service charge estimate. Furthermore, the snuck in the first visit from three of those services in February/March of this year, and consequently the costs appear in the to 2018/19 accurate service charges.

The annual cost of these services is estimated at £640, so £160 each. That's £160 I could much better spend on something... anything... else.

Window cleaning is explicitly the responsibility of the leaseholder, so they can poke that. The carpet shampooing is a joke: it's ~4 square metres of 'utility' carpet which would be cheaper to replace than to clean once. Guttering? Not a single blockage or drip in my time here (and was completely replaced 6-7 years ago when the house was reroofed). Drains? Again, not one blockage or nasty whiff. The drain guys were armed with a camera and announced we need extensive epoxy patching. Fair enough - the drains are over 30 years old - but it seems like a fishing exercise, and ongoing six-monthly 'cleaning' is just ridiculous.

The managing agents' response to our querying these services is that These are all maintenance and servicing of the property. We are working to try and keep down larger issues, with smaller constant maintenance, which should hopefully reduce larger jobs.

To my mind, given that the 'larger jobs' have amounted to precisely £0 over the past two decades, this is nonsense. There was also a complete failure to address the point re 'ownership' of window-cleaning.

The wording of the lease is To maintain repair redecorate and renew the Common Parts and the Service Conduits and the Estate and so far as applicable and practicable. It's a massively woolly, catch-all sentence, but does it mean that we're obliged to accept these scheduled maintenance works?

Does the long-term precedent of 'doing bügger all' count for anything?

Or do we just have to kick up sufficient fuss re the extraordinary unnecessariosity and lack of cost effectiveness that they'll eventually back down?

Any advice on how to proceed gratefully received...

G_M

Right To Manage.

Then you can decide between yourselves what/when you want work done.

da_rule

Or, if you and the other leaseholders are unhappy, and can afford it, you could buy the freehold.

Also, does the lease allow anyone other than the freeholder to demand and accept payment of service charge?

Ultimately, you can formally dispute the charges but the only one you are likely to be successful with is the windows. The other services do seem reasonable and the costs don’t seem unreasonable either. Previous inaction doesn’t really mean anything, unless the previous inaction was unreasonable and has meant that the current costs are higher as a result.

If you start making some noise regarding right to manage or buying the freehold, you may find that they back down.

Also, what were you sent with the service charge demands? Were you sent a list of rights?

prudence2

Sorry, wandered of for a bit...

If the MA is insistent on introducing scheduled drain/gutter cleaning then this might well be the catalyst for us to get our collective act together and begin the RTM process.

Re The drain guys were armed with a camera and announced we need extensive epoxy patching. Fair enough - the drains are over 30 years old - but it seems like a fishing exercise I managed to get someone around at the weekend, who announced that...

a) drains would benefit from repairs, but

b) all bar a couple of 2m runs from the property are the responsibility of Thames Water and have been since 2011 regulation changes, because the drain serves both our house and the neighbouring house

c) it would actually be an offence to 'interfere' with the TW-owned drains

Obviously the MA's drainage people will be well aware of this, and I'm sure that the MA themselves are too. I used to give them the benefit of the doubt - that they were simply inept - but it seems more and more evident that they're actively trying to generate S20 work for the associated fees.