New Home Annual Estate Charges - David Wilson

Rosella9

We are considering buying a new home, which is Freehold, but has an annual maintenance charge. 

I have read all about the issues around this and my head tells me not to buy. 

However my heart loves the style and quality of the build and the location, so I’m still tempted. I’m hoping I can find someone on here who has bought a new David Wilson home in the past and how much has their service charges have increased each year? 

Was anyone able to get the Title Deeds amended to omit service charges completely, or at least cap them by a percentage each year?  They are struggling to sell homes now, so hoping they would be willing to do this to get a sale. Thanks for any tips/advice on this subject. 

GDB2222

"Was anyone able to get the Title Deeds amended to omit service charges completely, or at least cap them by a percentage each year? " 

Not a chance! If you are not paying your fair share, it just loads the costs onto the other buyers, who would regard it as grossly unfair.  You are buying into an estate with grounds, and you simply need to pay your share of the maintenance costs.

Will the estate management eventually come under the control of the home owners? If so, they will have to come to a reasonable compromise to keep costs at a reasonable level, whilst maintaining the estate. 

People complain like mad about these charges, but most estates seem to cost in the region of £200-500 a year per home, which is not the end of the world. 

Taking these costs into account, if you think the price being asked for the new house is too high, either offer less for it, or buy an old house that doesn't have an estate management charge but probably has higher heating and maintenance costs.  

Olinda99

there is no cap on these charges and they can escalate

the houses are called fleecehold for a reason

mark_cycling00

Noone likes to pay these charges. As such you and everyone else on the estate scrutinises them and are motived to keep them low.

When owners decide to manage estates themselves usually you end up with power mad nutters appointing themselves as the manager and making everyone's lives a misery. But you might save £50 a year.

You need to balance that you are saving massive maintenance costs by buying a brand new home and also high standards of insulation that will reduce your bills.

Big repairs such as a leaky roof costs 10-20% more to fix than 2 years ago and you simply don't face this risk for 15 years or more.

I suspect that the premium on new homes is much lower these days due to falling prices so you could still be getting a good deal

BobT36

"They are struggling to sell homes now, so hoping they would be willing to do this to get a sale".

Good. If enough people stop buying these fleecehold boxes, they'll be forced to start being more reasonable. Councils, too. 
I HATE how you cannot just "buy" anything these days. Everything has to be some sort of "service" which you pay for forever. 

It's like paying two council taxes. ANOTHER bill to just keep going up and up and up while salaries don't. Personally I'd walk away and not want to support this out of principle, but it's up to you.

[Deleted User]

Pull out if they won't remove the fleecehold. It's a scam, you will get ripped off, and then need to find another mark to scam when you want to sell.

GDB2222

There are some roads round here that have been private, unadopted roads for nearly 100 years. The residents have to pay for upkeep, and they know that before they buy.   It hardly seems like a scam to me. 

silvercar

Olinda99 said:

there is no cap on these charges and they can escalate

the houses are called fleecehold for a reason

BobT36 said:

"They are struggling to sell homes now, so hoping they would be willing to do this to get a sale".

Good. If enough people stop buying these fleecehold boxes, they'll be forced to start being more reasonable. Councils, too. 
I HATE how you cannot just "buy" anything these days. Everything has to be some sort of "service" which you pay for forever. 

It's like paying two council taxes. ANOTHER bill to just keep going up and up and up while salaries don't. Personally I'd walk away and not want to support this out of principle, but it's up to you.

[Deleted User] said:

Pull out if they won't remove the fleecehold. It's a scam, you will get ripped off, and then need to find another mark to scam when you want to sell.

If you read the OP, you will see that this isn't a leasehold situation, so using "fleasehold" is misplaced.

These are homes on an estate that generally has some communal greenery and/ or unadopted road that needs to be maintained. 

Friends owned one of these (not sure of the builder) and all houses agreed to cover the cost of replacing the minimal amount of grass with artificial grass and dispense with gardening services, saved them ££££.

ProDave

silvercar said:

Olinda99 said:

there is no cap on these charges and they can escalate

the houses are called fleecehold for a reason

BobT36 said:

"They are struggling to sell homes now, so hoping they would be willing to do this to get a sale".

Good. If enough people stop buying these fleecehold boxes, they'll be forced to start being more reasonable. Councils, too. 
I HATE how you cannot just "buy" anything these days. Everything has to be some sort of "service" which you pay for forever. 

It's like paying two council taxes. ANOTHER bill to just keep going up and up and up while salaries don't. Personally I'd walk away and not want to support this out of principle, but it's up to you.

[Deleted User] said:

Pull out if they won't remove the fleecehold. It's a scam, you will get ripped off, and then need to find another mark to scam when you want to sell.

If you read the OP, you will see that this isn't a leasehold situation, so using "fleasehold" is misplaced.

These are homes on an estate that generally has some communal greenery and/ or unadopted road that needs to be maintained. 

Friends owned one of these (not sure of the builder) and all houses agreed to cover the cost of replacing the minimal amount of grass with artificial grass and dispense with gardening services, saved them ££££.

Pretend grass might not need mowing, but it is not maintenance free.  Who cleans the dog mess left behind by iresponsible owners?  Who removes the leaves in autumn, you can't just leave them to rot down like on a real lawn.  Etc etc.

MultiFuelBurner

If the cost of maintaing the private roads/green spaces/lighting etc is £400 a year maybe aske for £4k more.off.rhenpruce to cover the first 10 years.

BobT36

silvercar said:

Olinda99 said:

there is no cap on these charges and they can escalate

the houses are called fleecehold for a reason

BobT36 said:

"They are struggling to sell homes now, so hoping they would be willing to do this to get a sale".

Good. If enough people stop buying these fleecehold boxes, they'll be forced to start being more reasonable. Councils, too. 
I HATE how you cannot just "buy" anything these days. Everything has to be some sort of "service" which you pay for forever. 

It's like paying two council taxes. ANOTHER bill to just keep going up and up and up while salaries don't. Personally I'd walk away and not want to support this out of principle, but it's up to you.

[Deleted User] said:

Pull out if they won't remove the fleecehold. It's a scam, you will get ripped off, and then need to find another mark to scam when you want to sell.

If you read the OP, you will see that this isn't a leasehold situation, so using "fleasehold" is misplaced.

These are homes on an estate that generally has some communal greenery and/ or unadopted road that needs to be maintained. 

Friends owned one of these (not sure of the builder) and all houses agreed to cover the cost of replacing the minimal amount of grass with artificial grass and dispense with gardening services, saved them ££££.

"Fleecehold" specifically refers to FREEHOLD houses that have  additional charges, along with less rights than even leasehold.