TP1

Sister_Sister

Resolved thank you

The_Unready

That clause states you're responsible for expenses for maintenance of services provided to any other property on the estate.....

TripleH

The argument I guess would be that it requires a management company to organise people to come and cut the grass, carry out repairs etc. That would be viewed as a reasonable expectation.

The only challenge would be what your share is of the management charge. The apartments could be argued to need a greater portion as there would be more communal areas than houses.

My advice would be to pay under protest and query the split. If the residents self managed, a lot of the charges could be reduced.

TripleH

Yes, but the devil is in interpretation. You might think it should only mean your immediate vicinity but the definition of estate could be the whole complex of buildings of which your property is just one. It is likely you would be paying for areas you are not going to use.

user1977

The_Unready said:

That clause states you're responsible for expenses for maintenance of services provided to any other property on the estate.....

No, it says they're responsible for items "enjoyed in common by the Property and any other property on the Estate"...

user1977

Would help to see the rest of the deed, but that clause alone only covers the items defined as Common Facilities and Conduits.

comeandgo

You have not understood the TP1.  Did your solicitor not go over these things with you before you purchased?  

canaldumidi

Where and how is the 'Estate' defined'?

If it is not, how would a reasonable person define the 'estate'? Does your estate have a name? What area does this name encompass?

You are (quite reasonably) relating the clause to your 'courtyard', but that is not what the clause refers to.

Indeed, is the 'courtyard' defined anywhere'?

eddddy

So just to be clear - your argument is no longer about the cost of window cleaning or grass cutting.

It's about something that is listed on your bill as "Estate Management Charge". 

If so, have the management company explained what the "Estate Management Charge" is? Is it a fee charged by the management company for doing the stuff mentioned in para 12.5.5?



For example, the management company hire a contractor to sweep leaves up on the Common Facility driveway. They pay the contractor, and they send out bills to homeowners, they maintain the accounts of who's paid etc.  And they charge an "Estate Management Charge" for doing that admin work.

In that case, the "Estate Management Charge" might be legitimate, as it is part of the cost of maintaining the Common facility driveway (and other Common Facilities and Conduits).

eddddy

Sister_Sister said:

The above is a sales document. It wouldn't have formed part of your contract, so you should ignore it for the moment - it's not relevant to your current dispute.

It will be what the TP1 says that's important.

Sister_Sister said:

They have advised that as they have just taken over they don’t have any details of what exactly the money was spent on and that the costs are in line with the budgets agreed in the TP1 and my responsibilities under it.

The normal rules of a contract should apply. If they can't tell you what a bill is for, they can't really expect you to pay it.

(Just like if a plumber sends you a bill, but can't tell you what the bill is for, the plumber can't really expect you to pay it.)

If the management company want you to pay them for work done before they took over, they should have gathered all the details - like what work was done when, copies of purchase orders, copies of invoices, copies of receipts.

In your position, I think I would challenge them on those points.