Management and maintenance of common land

BulliJudd4

I own and live in one of several houses in a development on a cul-de-sac. A factor has managed and maintained the common ground (grass, trees and bushes) since the development was built 20 years ago. There is general discontent with the value provided by the factor, and the households have unanimously agreed that we wish to end our contract with them. And by unanimous I do mean 100% of the households. The work carried out is grass cutting and bush trimming, and the title deeds do not appear to stipulate that a formal property management contract must be in place.

The options appear to be as follows:

1) appoint a replacement factor,
2) agree to pay a local horticultural firm to carry out the necessary work, or
3) carry out the work between ourselves with a formal agreement of some kind, or 
4) carry out the work between ourselves without any formal agreement
 
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced a similar change or discussion, and any advice you may have. I personally feel the maintenance can easily be carried out amongst ourselves, but understand others may wish for an arrangement with a contractor or factor and that this may be particularly important if any owner came to sell their property. I also have not yet read up on the requirements for insurance on the common ground and what would happen in the instance of a third-party liability if we had no factor or contract in place. The existing contract includes Property Owners' Liability Insurance Cover.

Comms69

What does your lease stipulate?

eddddy

Comms69 said:

What does your lease stipulate?

Te OP mentions a 'factor' - therefore likely to be in Scotland, and unlikely to be leasehold.

Comms69

eddddy said:

Comms69 said:

What does your lease stipulate?

Te OP mentions a 'factor' - therefore likely to be in Scotland, and unlikely to be leasehold.

Good point - i withdraw my previous question

BulliJudd4

eddddy said:

Comms69 said:

What does your lease stipulate?

Te OP mentions a 'factor' - therefore likely to be in Scotland, and unlikely to be leasehold.

Yes, sorry - should have mentioned that I'm based in Scotland! 

comeandgo

Do you have a residents committee who instruct the management company?  They should be telling them they are rubbish.  You say common land.  Who in fact owns it, is it the owners of the houses?  We did in fact consider getting rid of our management company but trying to get money from all owners and the insurance aspect meant we left things as they are.

davidmcn

How many properties are involved?

I don't think marketability is really an issue, as long as the ground is somehow being maintained. Is there a huge amount of work involved (in comparison with people's private gardens) i.e. is it unreasonable to hope that there'll be enough keen gardeners among the residents to do the additional cutting/pruning once in a while?

As for insurance, I suspect your home policies may already cover your liability for your interest in the common property. Though the likelihood of anybody slipping on your grass and then deciding to sue "the residents of Acacia Avenue" seems remote.

greatcrested

DIY works well so long as everyone (or at least most) do their bit. If it all ends up with 1 or 2 people always doing the job, resentment builds up till eventually.......

Paying a contractor/gardener direct is bound to be cheaper than employing a factor to employ a contractor. Either way, the main concern is getting each house to contribute the share of the cost if the deeds don't demand it. But presumably that is already the case.

Insurance is worth double checking....

BulliJudd4

davidmcn said:

How many properties are involved?

I don't think marketability is really an issue, as long as the ground is somehow being maintained. Is there a huge amount of work involved (in comparison with people's private gardens) i.e. is it unreasonable to hope that there'll be enough keen gardeners among the residents to do the additional cutting/pruning once in a while?

As for insurance, I suspect your home policies may already cover your liability for your interest in the common property. Though the likelihood of anybody slipping on your grass and then deciding to sue "the residents of Acacia Avenue" seems remote.

Thanks for your response. There are 18 properties in total, and at least half-a-dozen individuals are more than willing to carry out the work, which extends to cutting grass the equivalent size about half a dozen of the gardens added together.