Freehold service charge

ladyrose786

Can anyone help me im a 1st time buyer and places for people have a service charge on my property but wasn't aware of this even though I signed a deed of covenant. 
Nor the seller nor the agency I bought the house from nor my solicitor cleared this to me. 
I questioned the solicitor regarding the signing of the documents but did not clear this. Instead I was coerced to sign kwikly.

After 7 months places for people the housing association sent me a bill for £300+ amount, when I queried they told me about all this which If I knew I would never buy the property. 
For me this was scary as itis I didn't have enough knowledge about the papers I was signing now I'm stuck with an MCOL.
They are holding me against the signature which to me is fraudulent due to not being fully aware of this.

Brie

Unfortunate and perhaps not best practice but I doubt it would be considered fraud.  And I have a dreadful feeling that should you ask the seller, estate agent or solicitor they will all reply with something like "well everyone knows that there's a service charge".    I hate "well everyone knows" statements as it's patently untrue in many cases.  

I think the best you can do is come to some arrangement to pay the service charge over an agreed period of time.  The alternative would be to sell the property but there's likely to be a lot of expenses with that.

I hope you can find a way to work it out.

GrumpyDil

Have you spoken to the solicitor you used to purchase the property and asked them to explain.

user1977

MCOL because you can't pay it or don't want to? It's unlikely to be sensible to withhold payment when it sounds like any dispute you might have is with your solicitor for not advising you fully.

Newbie_John

We were in similar situation and it came out during the Home Buyer report search, our one is about £200 and it's been like this for nearly 10 years. I originally had the same feelings like you - what's the point of freehold if you have to pay service charge.. 

But then we accepted it as the total cost for 20 years is £4000 and we really liked the house, and the area gets extra clean ups on top of the standard council ones, so not an issue long term.

But yeah, legally not sure what you can do so leaving it for others to respond.

ladyrose786

GrumpyDil said:

Have you spoken to the solicitor you used to purchase the property and asked them to explain.

yes already spoken to the solicitor they don't want the accountability 

ladyrose786

user1977 said:

MCOL because you can't pay it or don't want to? It's unlikely to be sensible to withhold payment when it sounds like any dispute you might have is with your solicitor for not advising you fully.

can't pay therefore the housing association has taken it courts 

david29dpo

Your solicitor should have gone though all the paperwork with you. Most get you to sign every page as you read it.
Did you use a "cheap" online firm for this? possibly recommended by the selling agent?

Unfortually most freehold new builds have these charges these days. I hate them and would never buy one. Its a good money making "scam" with the agents making a huge profit from it, ask any flat owner.

m0bov

Complain to the solicitors using their procedure. They are absolutely accountable for making you aware with their legal report.

loubel

If your solicitors genuinely did not make any reference in their correspondence with you (e.g. in their property report) of the freehold service charge then you should raise a complaint with them. You say that they are denying accountability but does this mean you have already complained and they have investigated and shown that they did explain this to you?

SarahB16

What do the service charges actually relate to? 

Is it for the maintenance of the green spaces near to your house?