Trustgreen Estate Management

Greysky

I'm looking into purchasing a freehold new build property by Bellway and like so many new developments there will be annual estate management fees. I've been informed it will be Trustgreen/Trustmgt that will be responsible for this and fees will be £144 for year 1.
Does anyone have any experience of this company on their estate that they can share?

monkeymarbles

No experience of Trustgreen but we have the same setup with Kingston (who are reputationally sound). Your solicitor should advise you on whether the wording is appropriate, for example our wording includes the words 'reasonable' for their fee - so they can't just hike up charges without clear reasoning. For £144, I imagine it's just estate greens largely - difficult to see how you'll ever have a problem with this in my view.

Worth noting that until the site is fully signed over, Bellway will take an estimate to the end of scheduled site completion circa in your completion fees, then you wait for handover. For our estate, no one has been charged yet - which for us is 14mths, others 2-3yrs. Bellway occasionally sends someone in to mow the grass and tend to trees in the meantime.

Note: some mortgage lenders are awkward over estate management fees, without real reason either.

Richard436

It’s now almost four years since the above message was posted, and I wondered whether anyone has any updated experiences regarding TrustGreen. I’m currently considering purchasing a ‘freehold’ property on a new-build estate that has an estate management fee, with TrustGreen listed as the estate manager. However, I’m having reservations about proceeding.

Although the name ‘TrustGreen’ sounds reassuring, I personally find some of the terms in the documentation difficult to interpret. For example, the agreement states that the estate manager may “provide any other services or carry out any other work within or outside the Estate” and recover the associated costs through fees. The document also uses phrases such as “reasonably possible,” “reasonably practical,” “for the time being,” and “from time to time,” which I find quite vague. As a non-lawyer, I’m unsure how such wording might be interpreted in practice or how homeowners would challenge any decisions.

There also doesn’t appear to be a clear requirement for the estate management company to consult with homeowners before undertaking work it considers necessary. From my reading, any challenge might need to go through the courts, which I imagine could be expensive and complex, particularly when reasonableness is open to interpretation.

I have also looked at publicly available company information for Trust Green Limited. While I don’t have the expertise to draw conclusions from this, I did notice figures that, to me, seemed significant, though I understand this may be normal for companies of their type.

Overall, my impression is that the agreement feels weighted towards the estate manager, and as someone without legal training, I find it quite daunting. More generally, I’ve seen the term ‘fleecehold’ used in online discussions about similar arrangements, and there appear to be various groups campaigning for changes to how these estates are managed.

I’d be really interested to hear about others’ experiences or thoughts—positive or negative—as I’m trying to make a well-informed decision.

Bebe1980

I suspect I'm in exactly the same boat as you but because the property is perfect for us I'm trying to justify proceeding...

If the fee was clearly and unambiguously tied to the RPI or another index I might feel ok but it's this sort of waffle:

The initial annual fee agreed with developer is £145.00 + VAT. This figure may be increased yearly in line with

retail price index stated from the 9th November 2021. Once Trustmgt starts to manage the open-space the

annual management fee will then be calculated from the anticipated management cost for that year.

On first reading it implies it is tied to the RPI but then that changes once Trustmgt start to manage the open-space... Then they'll simply project (estimate) the annual management cost and set the fee according to what that is... so no longer tied to RPI!

I think I'm going to forget it because I've finished working and on a fixed income.
Might be ok if I was younger or if the residents could take over the running of the management company and set the fees themselves.

TBH I was brought up on a council estate with much larger green areas than this estate... How two guy's with a lawn-mower, a strimmer and turning up in a pickup van a few times a year now costs £20k pa is beyond me.

And that's just Trustmgt's starting price!