Management fee

Cheillie2020

We’re just in the process of buying a house that’s 3 years old on a Bellway estate. 

The estate probably has 200+ houses. 

We viewed a particular house on this estate (House A) and we’re told buy the current owners that they pay a management fee for the grounds. 

However, we’ve now gone to see another house (House on the same estate (but this one is at the front on the original public main road...so at the front of the development) and the owner of this plot has said they don’t pay any management fees nor heard of anything. 

Is this normal? I would assume all houses would pay the fee? Or would it only apply to houses that are tucked away in the development with grassed verges etc? 

And, would something show up in the deeds if the property was tied into a management fee/company ? 

And...if there wasn’t any mention of it in the deeds, could it be a mistake, and if so could we get a letter demanding money at some point? 

Thanks  

flashg67

On my old estate, only some paid a fee for maintaining shared areas, so it is possible it's the same there. If it's not in the deeds, I'd guess it would be difficult to start enforcing any charges from now?

princeofpounds

Whilst it's not the norm, it does sometimes happen that different houses on the same estate have different conditions re management charges.

We have seen rare examples on the Board where it was actually a mistake in drafting the leases or freehold covenants, but in your case I suspect the difference is because the house you have just seen is on an adopted road, whilst the others are possibly on a privately-owned road that the council does not maintain.

It is also entirely possible the owner of the second house is just plain wrong - people often have a shaky understanding of these things. 

Downloading and reading his title deeds will give you an answer. If it's not in the deeds, no they cannot demand payment (although that's no guarantee they won't try, but given he hasn't received demands they clearly aren't trying)