Realistic expectations of Management Company fees when buying

rootandbranch

I'm a first time buyer, buying into a relatively new area, but not buying a new build. It's a freehold property, but a tranch of land is managed by a Management Company. 

Along with a fee from our solicitor for purchasing a freehold property with a Management Company of £245, we're also being charged the following:

Solicitor's Deed of Covenant Fee (to draft a DoC between us and the Management Co.) - £215
Notice Fee - Charge (from Management Co.) - £100
Notice Fee - Assignment (from Management Co.) - £100
Issue Deed of Cov (from Management Co.) - £100
Certificate of Compliance (from Management Co.) - £100

The addition of £400 from the management company and £460 from the solicitors (£860), seems steep and is much more than we were expecting for purchasing a property in this situation. 

Are these fees at this level normal?  

JM68

Seem normal to me.  Management companies and freeholders always charge what seem to be quite high fees for these things because if you don't pay them the sale will often not go through e.g. if your mortgage require them to be completed.  The only real way to avoid these sorts of fees is to buy a 'pure' freehold with no complications.

Do you have to pay ground rent for the freeholder part (and if so what are the review/increase terms), or a fee to get their permission to do certain things with your property?  If you do, this could be an issue for you.

PJBRFC

I used to live in a new build freehold house with a management fee for some nearby green space.

When we sold it our buyer had to pay numerous fees related to it including; a fee for her solicitor to deal with it, a fee for the transfer of the management charge, a fee for the DoC (which included the compliance cert) and a notice fee. It's a joke to be honest, an easy money maker for the Mgmt Co's. 

Freehold property management fees are generally unregulated too, so you need to proceed with caution IMO. We lived in the property for 5 years and the management charge came into effect on year 3. Our charges for years 3 to 5 were £148, £176 and £215. I dread to think what it is now. They also sent some properties letters saying they had overspent on year 4 and required them to pay more. We never received one for some reason, thankfully. 

jlfrs01

The fees the OP has listed seem quite good to me - I paid between £200 and £350 plus VAT for mine when buying a property in a smilar position about 4 years ago. It was even more when selling because I had to pay for the management company to produce a schedule for my buyer. This was little more than 2 sides of A4 but cost nearly £500 and they wouldn't budge on the price.