Issues buying new build

stevoh

LegallyLandlord said:

Also with new builds, do check if there’s an estate charge or other service charge, and whether it’s capped. That can affect the resale value. Is it leasehold or freehold? 

There is. It’s £150 for first year. It doesn’t state anywhere whether it’s capped but the sales guy says it follows inflation. 

MultiFuelBurner

A friend with no expertise.

A builder friend who says walk away

A lack of confirmation on service charge.

A builder who probably doesn't care enough to want to answer your questions fully before the next happy purchaser comes along.

What do you want from this post reassurance to buy or walk away?

No one can give that to you without inspecting themselves, something you need to do with a builder if you are serious.

stevoh

MultiFuelBurner said:

A friend with no expertise.

A builder friend who says walk away

A lack of confirmation on service charge.

A builder who probably doesn't care enough to want to answer your questions fully before the next happy purchaser comes along.

What do you want from this post reassurance to buy or walk away?

No one can give that to you without inspecting themselves, something you need to do with a builder if you are serious.

Yeah so that was my original question. How do I get this rubber stamped/ de-risked as much as possible.

I was looking at survey options. It’s seems snagging surveys seem to be the standard go to for new builds. Happy to pay for full structural survey. Beyond this I don’t know what’s available.

Frankly I’ve had a year from hell. Without going in to too much detail, we’ve nearly lost our son three times and my wife once.

might be overthinking this but I really need to make other parts of my life as straight forward as possible. 

Postik

stevoh said:

LegallyLandlord said:

Also with new builds, do check if there’s an estate charge or other service charge, and whether it’s capped. That can affect the resale value. Is it leasehold or freehold? 

There is. It’s £150 for first year. It doesn’t state anywhere whether it’s capped but the sales guy says it follows inflation. 

If the house is already built, I would go visit and dig my car keys into the mortar in a few places.  It should be rock hard.  Also, ask the neighbours if they had any issues with the mortar.

If the house is brand new I am not sure the developer will allow any kind of snagging and surveys prior to completion.  This is why I bought a "second-hand" new build, so that I could fully inspect it and have whatever surveys done that I wanted.  Otherwise, you risk buying a lemon (although I'm sure that they are far and few between given the number of houses that they build every year).

As for the service charge, I'm fairly certain you'll find that it's not "capped".  It will follow inflation but I am willing to bet in reality they can put it up to whatever amount they like.  If it's freehold, you have absolutely no say or protection over this.  If they put it up by an unreasonable amount and you took them to court, they can increase the service fee to cover their court costs!  But plenty of people pay these fees every year so you probably shouldn't let it stop you if you like the house enough.

stevoh

Postik said:

stevoh said:

LegallyLandlord said:

Also with new builds, do check if there’s an estate charge or other service charge, and whether it’s capped. That can affect the resale value. Is it leasehold or freehold? 

There is. It’s £150 for first year. It doesn’t state anywhere whether it’s capped but the sales guy says it follows inflation. 

If the house is already built, I would go visit and dig my car keys into the mortar in a few places.  It should be rock hard.  Also, ask the neighbours if they had any issues with the mortar.

If the house is brand new I am not sure the developer will allow any kind of snagging and surveys prior to completion.  This is why I bought a "second-hand" new build, so that I could fully inspect it and have whatever surveys done that I wanted.  Otherwise, you risk buying a lemon (although I'm sure that they are far and few between given the number of houses that they build every year).

As for the service charge, I'm fairly certain you'll find that it's not "capped".  It will follow inflation but I am willing to bet in reality they can put it up to whatever amount they like.  If it's freehold, you have absolutely no say or protection over this.  If they put it up by an unreasonable amount and you took them to court, they can increase the service fee to cover their court costs!  But plenty of people pay these fees every year so you probably shouldn't let it stop you if you like the house enough.

Yes I’d be inclined to agree with you on the service charge front and this is something I’m expecting my solicitor to kick up a fuss about. I think I’ve read that some people were able to get some of the clauses reworded but I plan to fully scrutinise this one. 

My understanding is that the local council won’t pay the costs to adopt the communal areas. There’s probably an argument that the council tax should be reduced for these properties.

It seems the way of the world these days is a continuous march towards more and more private ownership and more and more movement of wealth and power from the masses to the the minority. We just sit there and swallow it year after year, voting for the same clowns. Forgive me- a bit of an off topic rant!! Lol 

comeandgo

You do not get a reduction of council tax just because your housing estate is not council adopted.  

eddddy

stevoh said:

Yes I’d be inclined to agree with you on the service charge front and this is something I’m expecting my solicitor to kick up a fuss about. 

Your solicitor will probably summarise the service charge terms for you, and highlight anything unusual.

But it will almost certainly be a case of 'take it or leave it'.  The developers wouldn't change the service charge regime for the estate just for you. (And other owners will have already agreed to it.)

As you probably realise, you'll have to pay your share (or percentage) of the cost of managing the estate. (e.g. if there are 20 houses, you might pay 5% each.)

So those costs for communal areas might include:

Grass cutting
Leaf clearing
Tree pruning
Shrub replacement
Pavement/Road Cleaning
Road Lighting
Maintaining and repairing fencing
Maintaining and repairing footpaths, roads, parking areas
Maintaining and repairing play areas, benches, etc

The more communal space and/or communal facilities there are, the more your service charge is likely to be.

In the first few years, very little maintenance and repairs will be needed - so the service charge might be low. But over time, things will wear-out (or get broken), so repair and replacement costs will we added to the service charge. And you'll have to pay your percentage of those costs.

Postik

stevoh said:

My understanding is that the local council won’t pay the costs to adopt the communal areas. There’s probably an argument that the council tax should be reduced for these properties.

Yes, it's all a bit of a swizz and I'm not sure who is to blame.  I have heard and read multiple things:

1) At a local planning level they request green spaces and play areas, but at a higher level the council won't adopt land if it includes tarmac paths, fences, play equipment, etc.  I'm not sure how true this is but it sounds feasible.

2) That the council will only adopt the green space and communcal areas if the developer puts down a large fee to contribute to the first X years worth of maintenance.  The developer usually doesn't want to do this so the land doesn't get adopted.

Either way I am fairly certain the developer is being forced to create the green space and communal areas because I am sure they would prefer to build another 3 or 4 houses on that space if they could.

In my opinion the council are suddenly getting an extra half a million pounds a year (or whatever the figure is) from these estates - they should be cutting the grass and maintaining the play equipment.  If they need extra cash from the developer for the first few years then this should be part of the planning permission, not something that is optional.  In actual fact the councils are shirking their responsibility, still getting the full amount of money in council tax, and leaving the residents at the mercy of a management company who can increase the fee to whatever they like in years to come.

I imagine in many instances the developer simply doesn't care as long as they sell the houses.  However I have heard of cases where the directors of the development company, or their family members, are also directors of the management company, which is probably a nice little on-going earner for them.

stevoh

comeandgo said:

You do not get a reduction of council tax just because your housing estate is not council adopted.  

Yeah I know, but I feel you should do 

hildasmuriel

Don't the builders normally withdraw from the whole thing once they have finished the build? Then it's run by a management company on behalf of the owners.