Open Spaces - Mandatory Annual Fee with New Builds - Now in Arrears

SH88

Hello.

I live on a New Build estate, and annually we're billed a £200+ invoice from an Open Spaces company who maintains the open spaces, such as cutting grass.

I believe this service a contract the Housing Developers agreed, and then passed onto buyers when houses were sold.

There's about 60 houses, and they cut the grass of the Open Spaces between them about 4-5 times per year.
We're also not allowed "ball games" on the open spaces (but that's a whole other issue)... Which they regularly remind us through snail mail, despite there being lots of kids around the estate.

None of the open space are near my house however there is an embankment opposite my house which is included in the grass cutting! (although to be brutally honest I'd rather they left it alone so the wild flowers could grow).

Anyway, please excuse my naivety, but is there ANY way to opt out of this?

I know it sounds petty. And I know I agreed when getting the house (I needed a place to live)...
But I don't use or get to see the Open Spaces. I would rather kids played ball games on the grass than the roads, and I like seeing Wild Flowers on the verges opposite my house...

This to me feels like some kind of collusion between housing developers and site maintenance to create an industry and force mandatory payments on residents.

Is there anything that can be done to withdraw from this.
I've been putting off paying for as long as possible in somewhat of a lame protest, but now I'm being hit with arrear notices and additional fees if I don't pay within the week.

For added context, the only people that seem to benefit from the open grass are visitors who drive here in their cars to let their dogs poop everywhere...

This all seems so backwards.

Any advice, or guidance, or similar stories would be appreciated. Thank you.

eddddy

SH88 said:

Anyway, please excuse my naivety, but is there ANY way to opt out of this?

That's very, very unlikely.

I'm assuming you have bought a freehold house.

I imagine that, in simple terms, the following happened...

When you bought the house, you signed a deed agreeing to pay a share of the the cost of maintaining the open spaces, and agreeing that you would not allow anyone from your house to play ball games in the open spaces.

Unfortunately, once you've signed a contract/deed like that, you can't just change your mind.

The bottom line is... if you didn't like those terms, you shouldn't have bought the house.

SH88 said:

Is there anything that can be done to withdraw from this.
I've been putting off paying for as long as possible in somewhat of a lame protest, but now I'm being hit with arrear notices and additional fees if I don't pay within the week.

It's sometimes very high risk not to pay estate service charges.

Firstly, you can probably be charged huge admin fees.

Secondly, if a court decides that the service charge is an estate rent charge, the developer might be able to take back possession of your house.

And/or the developer might be able to contact your mortgage lender, to request payment from them.

And the deed you signed might specify other types of enforcement action.



There's a separate question of whether £200+ is the correct amount to charge you. You can investigate whether you're being overcharged.

user1977

How would "opting out" work? Do you expect everybody else to pay your share?

Tabieth

I’m very far from being an expert (so take this with a pinch of salt) but I’d say two things. You signed a contract for the management of the grounds, presumably so did everyone else on the estate. I’m not sure why you think you can get out of that contract? If you think you were mis-sold / misled that may be worth pursuing. But if you’ve just changed your mind I don’t see what grounds you have to get out of it. (And while I sympathise with wanting a wild area, the other estate residents may not agree). 

And I think withholding payment is a Very Bad Idea! It could affect your credit rating, it may lead to fees, it could (worst case scenario) cost you your home. Withholding fees doesn’t further your argument in my way, if anything is hurts it as why would they engage with someone not paying up? 

My advice is immediately settle your debts. And then chat with your neighbours to see if anyone else shares your view on bill games / re-wilding. If enough residents want a wild area, that may happen. 

RelievedSheff

No you can not opt out. You signed the contract agreeing to the payments!

Olinda99

They are called Estate Charges aka fleecehold charges

If you google estate charges you will get more information

Labour have promised to reform it

https://www.jmw.co.uk/blog/commercial-litigation-dispute-resolution/reforming-estate-charges

SH88

eddddy said:

SH88 said:

Anyway, please excuse my naivety, but is there ANY way to opt out of this?

That's very, very unlikely.

I'm assuming you have bought a freehold house.

I imagine that, in simple terms, the following happened...

When you bought the house, you signed a deed agreeing to pay a share of the the cost of maintaining the open spaces, and agreeing that you would not allow anyone from your house to play ball games in the open spaces.

Unfortunately, once you've signed a contract/deed like that, you can't just change your mind.

The bottom line is... if you didn't like those terms, you shouldn't have bought the house.

SH88 said:

Is there anything that can be done to withdraw from this.
I've been putting off paying for as long as possible in somewhat of a lame protest, but now I'm being hit with arrear notices and additional fees if I don't pay within the week.

It's sometimes very high risk not to pay estate service charges.

Firstly, you can probably be charged huge admin fees.

Secondly, if a court decides that the service charge is an estate rent charge, the developer might be able to take back possession of your house.

And/or the developer might be able to contact your mortgage lender, to request payment from them.

And the deed you signed might specify other types of enforcement action.



There's a separate question of whether £200+ is the correct amount to charge you. You can investigate whether you're being overcharged.

Thank you for the reply. I totally agree regarding the contracts, however I just needed a place to live at the time, and the open spaces terms weren't a factor - primarily because I thought we'd have a say being the residents in how the areas are maintained and didn't think for a second kids wouldn't be allowed to play on the grass... It still baffles me to this day.

That said, I didn't think about enforcement action, and can't find any correspondents to check. So I have paid this evening to clear the balance. 

user1977 said:

How would "opting out" work? Do you expect everybody else to pay your share?

No, of course not. I don't believe I was implying that either.
I could cut small strip outside my house for less than £5 a year.

Preferably I would rather not pay for something that doesn't affect me, (and my family can't use), unless I can have a say... I thought that is why I paid council tax.

Tabieth said:

I’m very far from being an expert (so take this with a pinch of salt) but I’d say two things. You signed a contract for the management of the grounds, presumably so did everyone else on the estate. I’m not sure why you think you can get out of that contract? If you think you were mis-sold / misled that may be worth pursuing. But if you’ve just changed your mind I don’t see what grounds you have to get out of it. (And while I sympathise with wanting a wild area, the other estate residents may not agree). 

And I think withholding payment is a Very Bad Idea! It could affect your credit rating, it may lead to fees, it could (worst case scenario) cost you your home. Withholding fees doesn’t further your argument in my way, if anything is hurts it as why would they engage with someone not paying up? 

My advice is immediately settle your debts. And then chat with your neighbours to see if anyone else shares your view on bill games / re-wilding. If enough residents want a wild area, that may happen. 

Thank you for your response.
For clarification, yes I signed the contract with the developers, not the open spaces company, however this was a term within the purchase -- but not something I could negotiate at the time, like a contract would have suggested.

It's a mandatory payment that in my eyes turns out to be over priced, and comes with "rules" we must follow like not playing on the grass... whilst putting up with dog mess they don't clean, and less than 5 cuts per year.
It's an agreed upon scheme between 2 companies that forces payments and services on residents that can't negotiate or opt out off, unless of course they don't want to buy the house. Seems wrong to me.

I guess what I've learned from this discussion is that we may have to band together and question what we get in return for our mandatory payments.

I have taken your advice though and paid my balance this evening... Gives me a year to think about how to move forward. So thank you.

RelievedSheff said:

No you can not opt out. You signed the contract agreeing to the payments!

I signed a contract to buy a house. This was a non-negotiable term, agreed upon by the company I purchased from and a third-party I had no correspondence with.

I feels like blackmail and collusion.... You must accept dealing with this overpriced company forever, without say or negotiations, or don't buy this house. It doesn't sit right with me.

What's the point of open spaces if families can't use them, they look messy half the time, not even anywhere near my house and is covered in poop? Bit odd... I thought that's why I paid council tax. Especially seems the roads and verges are adopted.

Olinda99 said:

They are called Estate Charges aka fleecehold charges

If you google estate charges you will get more information

Labour have promised to reform it

https://www.jmw.co.uk/blog/commercial-litigation-dispute-resolution/reforming-estate-charges

Interesting.
Thank you for pointing this out. I had no idea.
I appreciate your to-the-point answer.

Let's hope it changes, because currently I'm paying £200+ for something that would cost me <£5 to "do my bit" for the community... and my family can't even utilise it.

Thanks all for your insights.

kev2009

From when I got mine, the open spaces maintenance was done in the beginning by developer then they passed it onto a 3rd party company. I believe there is meant to be a committee setup with some residence who can then raise questions, concerns and I presume even look at moving to a different company to provide the service, however I've never received any details of who the committee members are.

Maybe ask your neighbours if there is a committee and then perhaps raise the question through that and see if members agree and perhaps they would then have a means to question/lower the prices or change to a different company? My prices started off fairly low but have in recent years being going up quiet a bit. I am billed every 6 months, not sure why they don't do annually and they also cannot take payment via DD. I have to make the payments manually, I wish they would allow DD, would avoid me potentially forgetting to pay it :) I've also asked if they could send me the bill reminders and other correspondence via email but that's not a option either. However, if I email them and advise I've not received there request for the next 6 month payments, they then send me a PDF with the details via email.

Whilst I'm happy to pay the open space charges, I wish there was some limit put on them, as from my understanding, at the moment they could double the charges next year if they wanted to and we are left having to pay it. I think there should be a limit applied or a maximum % increase each year like the council tax so we don't suddenly get a large bill or be overcharged.

Kev

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81290269#Comment_81290269

Your council tax is nothing to do with the maintenance on your estate.

The developer has not paid to have the green spaces adopted by the local authority, or the local authority has refused to adopt the green spaces which is becoming a more frequent scenario.

It is not uncommon.

When you bought the house you signed a contract which agreed to the management company and their fees. You can not now decide you don't want that. Contracts are a legal undertaking.

Dustyevsky

Many properties have legally enforceable obligations attached.

We were not told of our responsibility to have 350m of road hedge cut annually when we purchased our property. If we don't have it done, the council will step in, do it, and then send us the bill. Is that 'blackmail and collusion?' We didn't sign an agreement with the council, but obviously it's someone's job, and it was our responsibility to check what was entailed before exchanging contracts. Thousands of people are in exactly the same position, and I can't see any government relieving us of this obligation.

whizzywoo

Has the building work finished on your estate? Or are the developers still building on it?

Very often there is an option for the residents to take over the management company at the end of building and run it themselves. That is the case on our estate. Phase One of the development is finished and is now run by the residents who are directors in the management company. My house is in Phase two and in due course the additional management company will be passed over to the residents.

This would give you and other residents more scope to organise and pay for the work yourselves and actually decide what you want to do. Check through your legal paperwork to see if this is the case.