My aunt's maintenance bill is going up by £6,000 in December.

Civic2056

My 67 year old aunt is a single, retired woman with chronic health issues. She bought her flat seven years ago . She already has to pay three thousand a year for maintenance. A neighbour in the block went onto the management website and found out that in December , the company plan to increase the maintenance charge by £6,000, menaing my aunt will have to pay £9,000. She has no income, other than pension. She lives alone, other than with her dog , and as anyone who has a dog will tell you , they are very expensive. 

What can she do? Could she and the other residents effectively refuse to pay en masse? I know basically the management company /landlord by default have more rights as far as the law is concerned. But she cannot afford it, and cannot afford to move either. I don't have further information at this time, because they have not officially been told and won't be til December, won't be told which maintenance work will be carried out. 

user1977

In case there are Chinese whispers going on...are they sure that's £6000 per flat rather than their total accounts going up by £6k? No idea what the maintenance works are likely to be? 

diystarter7

Hi
One of the massive pitfalls of buying an apartment/etc on leasehold. The bigger the block/complex often the greater the problems - covers stuff like cutting grass, lighting, heating, security, maintenance in the communal areas etc etc and repairs, one-off repairs and places with lifts can have lots of repairs.

The management company must send a breakdown of costs and projections etc.  If you guys are not happy with those you need to say, EG - cost to repair cctv/door entry or replace, why is this being done and it could be done for 20% less etc. But its hard work and residents need to get together and see how money is spent, funds, etc

Our daughter has a rental apartment - nice location built in the late 70's pleant of parking thres blocks of 9 flats and the have managed parking and a bin storage and local low life often dump their rubbish there as its a quite area and this cost a few thousand to clear up every year so last year they installed cctv - its reduced the problem but not eliminated it - so you see the extra cost for cctv was about 7k split by the  residents but they had funds in the kitty and that covered most of it

in coucil tower blocks with two lifts where some have bought their flat and roof needs doing and windows, a friend had to pay 25k that was almost all of her savings

Avoid blocks of flats if possible.

Civic2056

diystarter7 said:

Hi
One of the massive pitfalls of buying an apartment/etc on leasehold. The bigger the block/complex often the greater the problems - covers stuff like cutting grass, lighting, heating, security, maintenance in the communal areas etc etc and repairs, one-off repairs and places with lifts can have lots of repairs.

The management company must send a breakdown of costs and projections etc.  If you guys are not happy with those you need to say, EG - cost to repair cctv/door entry or replace, why is this being done and it could be done for 20% less etc. But its hard work and residents need to get together and see how money is spent, funds, etc

Our daughter has a rental apartment - nice location built in the late 70's pleant of parking thres blocks of 9 flats and the have managed parking and a bin storage and local low life often dump their rubbish there as its a quite area and this cost a few thousand to clear up every year so last year they installed cctv - its reduced the problem but not eliminated it - so you see the extra cost for cctv was about 7k split by the  residents but they had funds in the kitty and that covered most of it

in coucil tower blocks with two lifts where some have bought their flat and roof needs doing and windows, a friend had to pay 25k that was almost all of her savings

Avoid blocks of flats if possible.

Yes, one hell of a pitfall indeed! And it's only a small block. I thought that might be the case - breakdown of costs etc. 

If the works weren't essential could the tenants say well if it's not essential, and we don't want it done, then we won't pay. Then again I suppose they wouldn't be doing the works if they weren't essential. (Eg if it was just cutting grass, aesthetics etc). 

diystarter7

Civic2056 said:

diystarter7 said:

Hi
One of the massive pitfalls of buying an apartment/etc on leasehold. The bigger the block/complex often the greater the problems - covers stuff like cutting grass, lighting, heating, security, maintenance in the communal areas etc etc and repairs, one-off repairs and places with lifts can have lots of repairs.

The management company must send a breakdown of costs and projections etc.  If you guys are not happy with those you need to say, EG - cost to repair cctv/door entry or replace, why is this being done and it could be done for 20% less etc. But its hard work and residents need to get together and see how money is spent, funds, etc

Our daughter has a rental apartment - nice location built in the late 70's pleant of parking thres blocks of 9 flats and the have managed parking and a bin storage and local low life often dump their rubbish there as its a quite area and this cost a few thousand to clear up every year so last year they installed cctv - its reduced the problem but not eliminated it - so you see the extra cost for cctv was about 7k split by the  residents but they had funds in the kitty and that covered most of it

in coucil tower blocks with two lifts where some have bought their flat and roof needs doing and windows, a friend had to pay 25k that was almost all of her savings

Avoid blocks of flats if possible.

Yes, one hell of a pitfall indeed! And it's only a small block. I thought that might be the case - breakdown of costs etc. 

If the works weren't essential could the tenants say well if it's not essential, and we don't want it done, then we won't pay. Then again I suppose they wouldn't be doing the works if they weren't essential. (Eg if it was just cutting grass, aesthetics etc). 

Indeed you can challenge everything. Please do not forget that certain items, eG a small gutter leak, flashing, problems with wiring, door seal leaks etc may appear small but if not fixed propely cost a lot more later on

Ask why and if not alread received a breakdown, demand one and take it from there

Sorry but as I said, avoid leasehold flats at all costs but all of them are becuse of communal areas etc at times the freehold is managed by tenants but only often the case where 100% privately owned.

BTW - just remembered - service charges can go down and we used to rent out an apartment and a couple of times the charge went down but about hundred quid but these days its often up by a lot but you can challenge it is the owners right

GDB2222

If nearly all the flat owners are in agreement, they can take over the running of the block, under the Right to Manage legislation. 

However, whilst managing it themselves may be more effective, it will not make the maintenance issues go away. 

Your aunt may be able to raise money against her flat, using one of the equity release schemes. But, it’s worth waiting until she knows what is happening in December. For example, it makes a big difference whether this is a one off £6k charge, or whether it’s going to be ongoing.

Devongardener

I suggest that you look at the management company website yourself to check the facts.  It’s unlikely that the charge would be increased from next month with no prior notification.

HampshireH

She should have received section 20 notices for all major works.

There is no way a £6k increase per flat is general maintenance increasing for one year.

martindow

There is a procedure to be gone through for major works on leasehold properties

https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/what-is-the-section-20-consultation-process-for-major-works/

Has you aunt received any official notification?  Have you found the management company website that the neighbour has mentioned?

Civic2056

martindow said:

There is a procedure to be gone through for major works on leasehold properties

https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/what-is-the-section-20-consultation-process-for-major-works/

Has you aunt received any official notification?  Have you found the management company website that the neighbour has mentioned?

The company is called Urang. She has not recieved any notification, I'm still unsure of how her neighbour found out the cost. It's a massive company that owns over 400 apartment blocks in the London area.

Interestingly, a shop owner took the company to court over the unaffordability of a £7650 service charge. It was issued without a S20 notice and was deemed unaffordable, so the claimant only had to pay £2750 for the repair.  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/615448e8e90e077a291f392d/Decision_New_Kings_Road_.pdf

So either they will issue the S20 in December or just spring the cost on her, in which case for the latter (if it is £6K per resident), they will have broken the law. Which doesn't surprise me

eddddy

Civic2056 said:

She has not recieved any notification, I'm still unsure of how her neighbour found out the cost. 

I think you need to find out some more concrete facts before anyone can give you useful advice. I guess it's possible that the neighbour completely misunderstood whatever they were reading.

Civic2056 said:

Interestingly, a shop owner took the company to court over the unaffordability of a £7650 service charge. It was issued without a S20 notice and was deemed unaffordable, so the claimant only had to pay £2750 for the repair.  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/615448e8e90e077a291f392d/Decision_New_Kings_Road_.pdf

It looks like you've mis-described (or misunderstood) that tribunal case. My reading of the case is:

6 leaseholders of flats challenged their Service Charges on the basis the the charges were not reasonable - you can't challenge Service Charges on the basis that they are not affordable.

Reasonable means things like:

• The work done was actually required (e.g. it wasn't a charge for unnecessary work)
• It was a fair price for doing the work (e.g. they didn't use overpriced contractors to do the work)
• The work done was the freeholder's responsibility according to the lease
• The freeholder has followed the law (e.g. they've correctly done a Section 20 consultation, if required)

Just to emphasise - you can't challenge a Service Charge simply because the leaseholders can't afford it, or it seems like it's a lot of money, or the a leaseholder is living on a pension, or it's more than last year etc.


However, the tribunal case seems to show that the managing agents have done things wrongly in the past, so it's possible that they're continuing to do things wrongly.


But on the other hand - it sounds like they've lost thousands of pounds at that tribunal case, so they'll probably be super-careful, to avoid losing any more.




Edit to add...

Civic2056 said:

So either they will issue the S20 in December or just spring the cost on her, in which case for the latter (if it is £6K per resident), they will have broken the law. Which doesn't surprise me

Just to clarify - you seem to be to be talking about increasing the estimated annual service charge.

A Section 20 consultation isn't required to increase the estimated annual service charge.

A Section 20 consultation might be required for each piece of major work - like repairing the roof, or repainting all the external woodwork.

If the annual service charge estimate includes costs for any pieces of work like that - some Section 20 consultations might need to be done before each piece of work starts.