Service charges - Leasehold property

travelbug22

Can someone please help. 
My mother who is 92 and purchased a lease hold property 6 years ago.
 The management company are a nightmare and keep increasing the charges each year. It started at £2,500 and now it is £4,000 per year. She has limited pension so this is now not achievable. They have also said that they require another £4,000 by August for remedial works. So she needs to find £8,000. She has no extra money and I have told them this. Unfortunately they are not interested and said it is in the contract and will take her to court if she does not pay. 
As you can imagine she is worried sick and her health is suffering badly. Is there anything we can do? We don't have that type of money to help her. Her pension now just about covers the increase in her bills. They are so inflexible and say there is nothing we can do.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. 

user1977

The Housebuying board may be a better place for specialist advice about leasehold matters.

What sort of property is it? Retirement flats are notorious for having high charges (and difficulties in disposing of them, if selling was being considered as an option).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

soolin

My mother had the same on a retirement apartment, however we had read reviews and were aware this was likely to happen, and mum budgeted for it when she decided what she could afford to spend. The maintenance extras were getting silly though, thousands of pounds a year for gardeners who basically put in a few plants, mainly in unsuitable places and with no care, and then left them to die. She ended up on a residents committee who had started to look at some of these elevated costs, before she was unfortunately taken ill and died.  

One tip is to question everything , see if there is a residents group who can get input into costs and try and get a seat. 

travelbug22

soolin said:

My mother had the same on a retirement apartment, however we had read reviews and were aware this was likely to happen, and mum budgeted for it when she decided what she could afford to spend. The maintenance extras were getting silly though, thousands of pounds a year for gardeners who basically put in a few plants, mainly in unsuitable places and with no care, and then left them to die. She ended up on a residents committee who had started to look at some of these elevated costs, before she was unfortunately taken ill and died.  

One tip is to question everything , see if there is a residents group who can get input into costs and try and get a seat. 

Thank you. Yes my sister is on the committee, but it makes no difference. The other people in the block do not seem to question it. They had a meeting today with the Management company who said we want the money by August otherwise they would start legal proceedings to anyone who had not paid. 
I was hoping their was some sort of law that said that the charges could not go up so high. But looks like its all weighted against the flat owner and the maintenance company have all of the power. 

eskbanker

Are annual increases covered by a clause in the lease?

Equity release would often be seen as a last resort but there don't seem to be many other resorts on the table?

Sandtree

There are lots of laws to protect leaseholders on service charges but they are not as strict as some would like... eg costs must be reasonable not the cheapest possible when it comes to buying third party services. There are routes for dispute outside of the traditional court system if freeholders/management companies haven't followed the processes.

Ultimately however if, for example, major works are required and the correct Section 20 process has been followed the leaseholders have to pay up in a timely manner to maintain the building/estate.

There are many more experts on leaseholder protections etc in the https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling section of the site