Not fit for purpose

jennifersewell

Hello. We recently purchased a 5 year old house. We were aware there was a management company and our solicitor completed the necessary checks upon the conveyancing process. Since moving in we have then become aware of some serious issues regarding the management company and the insufficient amenities on the site. The management fees are ever increasing, partly due to the maintenance and repair of a pump station. It’s then come to light that the pump station initially installed is insufficient for the number of houses built. (A second development was added to the pump station flow rather than being directed straight to mains). These seem to be fundamental flaws and I cannot begin to fathom how the houses were able to be sold with This design flaw. We are now liable for costs when we did not even live here (our solicitor did not suggest a retention), and we are doomed with never ending  repair costs to fix something that was never correct in the first place. All residents are together on this to try to resolve, but as the management company simply ignore or dodge the question about what is happening, it seems impossible to be able to resolve this. Where should our attentions be focused? 

getmore4less

Did you not talk to anyone on the estate before you bought?

If it's been going on for a while surprised it has not hit the web somewhere that would have come up in a search. 

jennifersewell

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Lessons have been learnt. No point looking backwards at this stage, just trying to focus on moving forwards and how best to focus our energies in tackling this 

GDB2222

How much money are you talking about to put this right? I mean per home.

rachel230

Who is the developer? There are lots of groups that have similar issues on their estate and they link up together to exchange ideas, information and compare notes. For example many developments built by the biggest government supported developer,  (millions of pounds of tax payers money) have recurring issues with heating/hot water.

Aliceinblunderland22

There's often loads of info and exposes about shocking buildibg standards.... A friend had dreadful issues with TW... So bad the entire development had to move out while they remedied... 
See if you can join together with other groups to put pressure on. 

chanz4

Why not form a management company, and sack the other all need to agree

RelievedSheff

Presumably this development is out of the developer warranty period? Is it still within the insurers warranty period though? If so you could try taking the issue up with NHBC (or other warranty provider) to try and get them involved.

If it is out of warranty completely then you will need to sort it out with the management company however difficult this may be.

OldMusicGuy

There are two issues here. The inadequacy of the pump station (the fault of the developer) and the rising costs/management company charges. Regarding the second point, if the management company is following the terms you agreed to in the transfer of land, there is nothing you can do about it. You need to go through the terms of the transfer of land document and all of the accounts provided by the management company to see if they are doing anything wrong. If they are simply passing on valid costs, then there is nothing you can do except pay them. You signed up for this when you bought the house. If the management company is charging you for things that are not (in your opinion) allowable under the terms of your transfer of land, then you need to follow their complaints procedure and if that does not work you then take them to the Property Ombudsman (https://www.tpos.co.uk/ ). 

Regarding the issue with the pumping station not being adequate, that is IMO a different matter that is nothing to do with the property management company. Again, you need to check your transfer of land document to see if there is a clause in there that states you will pay for sewage and other services work that may be necessary "from time to time" or something like that. That may mean you are liable for these additional costs. If there isn't, then there may be an argument that the developer should be paying for this (because they got the original spec wrong). I don't know how you would pursue this, maybe start with the council planning because the pump station should have been subject to planning permission. They may be able to give you some advice.

So two separate issues to deal with. If the houses are freehold, you cannot form a management company and takeover the running of the common areas. You probably have no right to replace the management company either, unless you go through arbitration (which you will have to pay for). I know this was the case in the development I have just moved from.

Regarding one of the other comments, this is not covered by the NHBC guarantee or insurance. That only covers your house, not things like issues with management companies or pump stations (I just checked my NHBC booklet....).

Bottom line for anyone reading this - you need to be very familiar with all of the restrictive covenants when buying a house on a development so you understand the potential implications in the future when problems like this arise.  

AdrianC

OldMusicGuy said:

There are two issues here. The inadequacy of the pump station (the fault of the developer) and the rising costs/management company charges.
...
Regarding the issue with the pumping station not being adequate, that is IMO a different matter that is nothing to do with the property management company. Again, you need to check your transfer of land document to see if there is a clause in there that states you will pay for sewage and other services work that may be necessary "from time to time" or something like that. That may mean you are liable for these additional costs.

I presume the property is not on mains drains - or the development is below the level of the mains drains. As we all know, the battle between effluent and gradient is unidirectional.

So, yes, it's entirely possible that the maintenance and upgrading of the pumping station is the responsibility of the management company, and the bill is then going to follow a similiarly unidirectional trajectory all the way to the property owners.

If there was no retention, then the sale of the property does indeed include liability for any future bills, no matter when the work occurred.

Somehow, though, I rather suspect the issues around the station arise from people lobbing down bogs that which should not be lobbed down bogs. In other words, user error...

m0bov

Can you all not form a group and hire a solicitor to look at suing the developer who has overloaded the system? They have caused the issue, they should have upgraded it. You might have to commission a report to demonstrate on the balance of probability, the developer caused it.