Being Charged Two Service Charges For One Flat

Sharongill3

Hi There,
I have a leasehold flat. It is situated at the top of a Victorian house in the roof area with 10 flats in the floors below. The house is semi-detached and originally had two flats with separate leases in the old roof with their own separate entrances on each side of the building. So the original property housed 12 leasehold flats. About 20 years ago the whole roof area was removed, rebuilt and converted into a single flat with one lease. Therefore there is now only 11 leasehold flats in the property. 

The managing agent for the building charges me two service charges even though it is one leasehold flat that only requires payment of one Council Tax. I have mentioned this to the management company and they verbally replied that the reason for the double charge was to account for the extra square footage. Additionally, the cost for my share of the Freehold is the same price as the other 10 flats in the property.
Is it correct that I should be paying two service charges under these circumstances?

AdrianC

What does the lease say?

I presume you were happy with this arrangement when you bought the flat. How long ago was that? What's changed to make you unhappy with it?

Sandtree

Services charges can be based on all sorts of things, our last rental flat was a fee per SqM charge so many charges varied massively. The building next door only those on floor 2+ paid towards the lifts (they didn't stop of 1st). Our current place each unit pays the same price and yet we don't use the communal areas nor have use of the lifts etc.

Makes sense in your case if someone decided to buy the next door flat and knock through that the freeholder agreed they'd pay twice the charge rather than having to change everyone else's lease to pay an 11th rather than a 12th.

NameUnavailable

Sandtree said:

Makes sense in your case if someone decided to buy the next door flat and knock through that the freeholder agreed they'd pay twice the charge rather than having to change everyone else's lease to pay an 11th rather than a 12th.

I think this is the correct answer!

Grumpy_chap

There were 12 flats in the building, so each flat pays 1/12th of any charge.
At some point, an individual converted two of the flats into one, so there are now 11 flats.  That means two options for the service charge:

1. Everyone pays 1/11th of any charge.  That means an increase in the 10 flats that are unchanged and likely had no say in the decision to reduce the total number of flats
2. Ten flats continue to pay 1/12th and the "double flat" pays 2/12th.  

Which of the above options is most equitable for the 10 flats that have not grown in size?

LAD917

Same deal in my building.  The combined unit pays two service charges, but has equal share in the freehold, which was purchased after the combination.  

eddddy

Your lease should explain how your service charge share is calculated - often (but not always) it would specify the percentage of the total service charge bill that you have to pay.

You say you pay 2 service charges - so do you have 2 leases? Or do you mean you have one lease, and your service charge is double the amount of other leaseholders?




'Share of freehold' is completely unrelated to size of flat or service charges. It sounds like you're saying that 11 people formed a company that bought the freehold of the building, and everyone agreed that they would each pay 1/11th (or 9.09%) of the cost of the freehold, and would therefore each own an 1/11th (or 9.09%) share of the company/freehold.

It would have been equally valid for one person to pay 60% of cost of the freehold in return for a 60% share, another person to pay 1% of the cost for a 1% share, etc. That has nothing to do with the size of their flat, or the service charge they pay.