'Service charges' after buying freehold council house?

saajan_12

Magst68 said:

macman said:

If there is a freehold service charge for maintenance of the wider estate and that is written into the deeds of the property you wish to purchase, then yes, you do have to pay it. It makes no difference if you are buying under RTB or as a conventional private purchaser.

But does that not conflict with the tenants 'right to buy'? Where in legislation does it say on going charges need to be paid? I am only familiar with the right to buy legislation which states the council must sell. 

Where in legislation does it say you have the right to buy only the benefits without the responsibilities of a home owner? 

You have the right to buy THAT property. Some properties are effectively long leases, some properties are in the middle of nowhere, some come with additional easements, some come with additional covenants.. THAT property comprises of (a) some land, (b) a building for residential use, (c) an obligation to pay service charges. It doesn't really affect you what that charge is for or what others pay (your share would likely still be a defined % whether others are paying or the council is paying their share). You can't cherry pick (a) + (b) and leave (c) as you had the right to the package, all or nothing. 

Even without a service charge, property ownership requires you to pay council tax (subject to the heirarchy) and reasonably maintain it in the event of a council enforcement notice. You can't just say you want the house without those, jsut like you can't just say you want the house without the service charge. 

Magst68

saajan_12 said:

Magst68 said:

macman said:

If there is a freehold service charge for maintenance of the wider estate and that is written into the deeds of the property you wish to purchase, then yes, you do have to pay it. It makes no difference if you are buying under RTB or as a conventional private purchaser.

But does that not conflict with the tenants 'right to buy'? Where in legislation does it say on going charges need to be paid? I am only familiar with the right to buy legislation which states the council must sell. 

Where in legislation does it say you have the right to buy only the benefits without the responsibilities of a home owner? 

You have the right to buy THAT property. Some properties are effectively long leases, some properties are in the middle of nowhere, some come with additional easements, some come with additional covenants.. THAT property comprises of (a) some land, (b) a building for residential use, (c) an obligation to pay service charges. It doesn't really affect you what that charge is for or what others pay (your share would likely still be a defined % whether others are paying or the council is paying their share). You can't cherry pick (a) + (b) and leave (c) as you had the right to the package, all or nothing. 

Even without a service charge, property ownership requires you to pay council tax (subject to the heirarchy) and reasonably maintain it in the event of a council enforcement notice. You can't just say you want the house without those, jsut like you can't just say you want the house without the service charge. 

Well it's already been successfully challenged by a resident in the same position, so it seems you can. I will let you know how we get on.   

jbainbridge

Speak to your elected councillor?

Strikes me as unreasonable if there's no grass nearby to cut and others aren't paying it.

Magst68

jbainbridge said:

Speak to your elected councillor?

Strikes me as unreasonable if there's no grass nearby to cut and others aren't paying it.

Thanks Jbain, a voice of reason haha. We've found the details of the local councilor(s), MP etc if we need them, thank you. I think it's a matter to try and resolve with the council to begin with, present the evidence and ask them to justify it. 

tooldle

Could the service charge include the road? I live in an un-adopted road. 
A housing association applied to build bungalows for disabled residents. As part of the planning, the housing association are now responsible for maintenance of the road and verges. The private owners are relieved of the responsibility, and my property actually owns some of the road that has now been nicely resurfaced.

TheJP

Welcome to the world of homeownership. You may be able to challenge it but you may not get the result you want. 

AskAsk

i bought a council house that the previous owner had bought with right to buy.  the deed has a covenant that there will be a service charge for the estate. 

my house is on a road that is adopted by the council so it does not benefit from the estate as it is all paid for by the highway agency and the council.  however, i have received 10 years worth of backdated service charge from the council as they said there is a covenant in my deed and it doesn't matter that i am not getting any of the services.  the fact that it is in my deed is enough for them to charge the service charge.

AskAsk

jbainbridge said:

Speak to your elected councillor?

Strikes me as unreasonable if there's no grass nearby to cut and others aren't paying it.

this is interesting.  i will find my councillor and see if they can help.  i have been told by my solicitor that i am not liable to the charge but i still continue to receive bills from the council as they are not giving up.  i spoke to the leasehold organisation and they said they can not help as it is done through a covenant so i am not considered a leaseholder.

pretty annoying that i am being billed for services that i do not benefit from and already paid for by the public purse and to be billed so many years backdated as the council did not know that the house had been sold on.

Bradden

What did the council say?

Ditzy_Mitzy

Magst68 said:

eddddy said:

Magst68 said:

What's worse is that apparently it only applies to houses sold after 2012, which means only about 20% of the people will be paying this infinite 'service charge' and 100% of the other homeowners will be paying nothing. 

I would have thought your percentage of the service charge would be based on the number of properties that have the use of the communal space.

For example,

• If 50 'similar' houses all have access to the communal space - you would pay 1/50th or 2% of cost of maintaining the communal space.

It doesn't matter if some of those houses were bought before 2012 and/or some those houses are still owned by the council and rented out.


(My guess is that the council didn't get their act together before 2012 - and didn't think about including a service charge for buyers.)

Magst68 said:
Exactly, these costs could in theory double or triple. No thank you  

In theory, yes.  But they should only be your share of the cost of cutting the grass, pruning the trees etc.

So if the cost of hiring contractors to cut the grass doubles - then your service charge might double. But that's unlikely to happen in the short term.

I guess there might be unexpected expenses, like a tree becomes unsafe, so tree-surgeons have to cut it down - and then maybe there's the cost of planting a new one.


But I guess you should check whether the deed allows the council to charge you for improvements - like fancy new plants and planters, or maybe a pond and water feature! 

I wouldn't describe any area around here as 'communal'. In fact there isn't even a tree or patch of grass for over 100m of the property. So it seems quite hard to justify, especially as the other homeowners (it's mainly homeowners) pay nothing. 

We're actually trying to find legislation that would counter the legal right to buy that is in support of forcing these charges on to the buyer. I suppose it's good news we've not found anything to that effect yet

Thanks for your input  

I'm afraid that's entirely irrelevant.  Purchasing a house is an individual contract negotiation between the vendor and the buyer.  What went into next door's, Mrs Green from two streets away's or Rod Stewart's house purchase contract has no bearing on you.  Covenants are applicable to the freeholder, which would be you post-purchase.