Leasehold service charges.

Bubbs81

Hello all 

I'm currently in the process of buying a leasehold flat, I have just had sight of the lease & the management pack.

My question is going to relate to challenging the service charges based on a few factors that I am going to list below.

The current service charge is £1367.00 PA 

The flat that we are buying is part of a linked chain of flats, they are all just 1 up,  the flat i am buying is the first within the link and sits in front of what I believe would be the main communal area serving the estate, I say this as it is served by an electronic gate which is after our property..

The flat we are buying has its own front door, it isnt accessed via a communal area, the flat above does have a communal entrance.

My allocated car parking spot is before the security gates leading on to the estate so I don't have the added security of secure parking.

The front of the flat does have a small amount of shrubbery which is managed by the management company.

The flat also has its own bin collection which is serviced by the local authority, so therefore we don't share a communal bin area which is beyond the gated estate.

We also have our own private terrace to the rear of the property that doesn't get serviced or managed by the management company, beyond that is an open space of land and that is managed by land owner.& separate management company 

My question is we will be paying the same amount of service charge as the rest of the linked estate but I don't feel that we should be paying for communal areas to be serviced that we don't actually have any thing to do with.

I'm just looking for advice on if this is common practice or.something I should be trying to challenge prior to completion.

TYIA 

TroubledTarts

Do you know for certain you are paying the same as neighbours who have more cominual services than yourself?

eddddy

Bubbs81 said:

My question is we will be paying the same amount of service charge as the rest of the linked estate but I don't feel that we should be paying for communal areas to be serviced that we don't actually have any thing to do with.

I'm just looking for advice on if this is common practice or.something I should be trying to challenge prior to completion.

The lease will say what costs you are required to contribute towards, and what proportion.

In simple terms, you are buying that lease and you will be agreeing to all the terms in that lease.

If it has terms in the lease that you don't like (e.g. having to contribute to the cost of maintaining electric gates, communal gardens, communal bins etc which you won't use), then you shouldn't buy that lease.


In theory, you can ask the freeholder/management company to vary the terms of the lease (e.g. so that you contribute less and other leaseholders contribute more) - but it's very, very unlikely that the other leaseholders would agree to that.

Browntoa

I lived on an estate with a similar set up , it's normal.

Service charges covered the whole estates gardens.

If you don't like it then there's nothing you can do , it's extremely unlikely that the management company would change it 

[Deleted User]

I once owned leasehold. Never again. Basically you pay what they tell you. To give an example, 200 yards from my apartment, on a 'private estate' (that basically means anyone can use it but the the people who live there pay for it to be maintained) there was an area call 'the plaza', lined with £1m properties and central to that, a fountain and large water feature. The fact that I could not even see the water feature from my apartment, and gained no benefit from it whatsoever, did not prevent me being compelled to pay £160 towards it every year. Ironically, the gardens directly outside my apartment, which were used by the owners of these £1m townhouses daily, were paid for exclusively by me and my neighbours. I looked into this and to cut a long story short, it was either pay up or sell up. There was no possibility of having the charge adjusted.

35har1old

Bubbs81 said:

Hello all 

I'm currently in the process of buying a leasehold flat, I have just had sight of the lease & the management pack.

My question is going to relate to challenging the service charges based on a few factors that I am going to list below.

The current service charge is £1367.00 PA 

The flat that we are buying is part of a linked chain of flats, they are all just 1 up,  the flat i am buying is the first within the link and sits in front of what I believe would be the main communal area serving the estate, I say this as it is served by an electronic gate which is after our property..

The flat we are buying has its own front door, it isnt accessed via a communal area, the flat above does have a communal entrance.

My allocated car parking spot is before the security gates leading on to the estate so I don't have the added security of secure parking.

The front of the flat does have a small amount of shrubbery which is managed by the management company.

The flat also has its own bin collection which is serviced by the local authority, so therefore we don't share a communal bin area which is beyond the gated estate.

We also have our own private terrace to the rear of the property that doesn't get serviced or managed by the management company, beyond that is an open space of land and that is managed by land owner.& separate management company 

My question is we will be paying the same amount of service charge as the rest of the linked estate but I don't feel that we should be paying for communal areas to be serviced that we don't actually have any thing to do with.

I'm just looking for advice on if this is common practice or.something I should be trying to challenge prior to completion.

TYIA 

Had a house that was subject to management charge all properties had to pay there share.
The company was responsible for green area's and trees that where dotted along the footpath.
The only shrubbery was at the site entrance which was not visible from the house which I owned.
The builder had planted other areas.
The maintenance charge was collected by the builder for a number of years by sent demand and for a few years it wasn't demanded.
It was then passed to management company paid yearly 
When it came to selling had to have a clause attached before management company would agree to the sale.
Never found out if the freehold was passed over to the management company.
The development company had been wound up

SustainabilityMary

It’s almost impossible to challenge service charges on
leasehold properties. Unless the property is on RTM arrangement whereby the residents appoint and have some control over the managing agents
see 
 https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/for more information on leaseholds