Service charges

AdrianC

Service charges are your share of what gets spent on the building, and possibly wider development.

Working from an assumption that all the figures are correct, they can't be predicted in advance - especially at the moment. We have a flat that's gone from about £350/qtr to £500 and now to £1250. Some of that is ongoing maintenance (especially of the lift), a large part of that is fire prevention and precaution.

The problems start when that assumption proves incorrect, and the management company are padding or flat-out fabricating bills, or contractors are taking the mick.

FWIW, as a non-resident landlord, I definitely DO care about the condition of the block - both from the PoV of protecting my investment and from keeping my tenant happy - I'm delighted that our management company has just changed, and I'm happy to become a director of the block company.

GaleSF63

Your £156 per month is a lot more than we pay. Do you know what it is all for? Is the charge for windows communal areas only or all windows? Our cleaning bill is a bit more than £3500 per year, including the windows in the communal areas but we are each responsible for our own windows. There are 24 flats so the individual cost per flat is about £12 per month - not so very different from yours. However in total we pay about £50-60 per month which includes ground maintenance, contingency fund and buildings insurance and a few other small things. All detailed minutely on the quarterly invoice we are sent. Each item is listed and shows the full cost and also the cost per flat (eg £1.66 for three months communal areas electricity). As should yours be.

Difference is though, we have more control; the factor (Scotland) does not make decisions in the same way that management companies working for freeholders in England do, unless it has previously been agreed with the residents. No ground rent as the flats are freehold. 

You need to get hold of a detailed breakdown of costs.

Justonemorecupoftea

We used to pay £250 per month on top of our rent as tenants to cover the service charge.

This included weekly cleaning, monthly window cleaning, gardening, two parking spaces (never bothered getting to the bottom of why that wasn't just in the rent?), maintenance of communal areas (they were pretty good at this sorting most issues in 24 hours) and inspections of fire alarm systems.