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If he’s a mate of yours I’d be asking him to do the right thing and build properties up to the standard local councils will fully adopt and pay the council the right fee to look after the common areas rather than passing the costs onto you, it can be done right it just costs money!
As mentioned I can’t see them giving you a bespoke agreement, I’m surprised smaller developers are doing it, learning from the big boys I suppose.0 -
Do any councils adopt private car parks these days?Glover1862 wrote: »If he’s a mate of yours I’d be asking him to do the right thing and build properties up to the standard local councils will fully adopt0 -
Depends how the parking is situated, ideally it should be part of the design ie driveway, or at least next to it, we’ve got a block of 4 garages with parking all fully adopted, certainly wasn’t a problem until a few years ago.0
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Thanks for everyones replies, it's been extremely helpful and I'm very grateful for all the help you have provided.
We are expecting the contract to be ready for exchange soon, so it will be interesting to see what the final T's and C's are regarding the service charge.
Since then I've seen other threads on here regarding the same thing, hopefully Parliament will actually do something about this.
Sally-Anne0 -
Hi Sally-Anne,
I think you may be taking the wrong messages from what you have read. Someone needs to pay to maintain the gate and driveway on your estate. It's a legitimate expense and will vary over time. It's not a public highway so the public has no interest in paying for it. The owners, such as you, are responsible for maintaining your gates and driveway. This will be done through a service charge and management company.
The only place the government might legislate is improving the ability of freeholders with positive covenants to pay service charges to have a legal say in how that service charge is managed. They will not do away with service charges... Someone has to maintain your gate and driveway and it won't be the public.0 -
Maybe you haven't been on the end of receiving incorrect and invalid service charges? It has been a nightmare for us. The problem is not who pays for the service charges (the residents always will), it is what happens when they are badly managed and in our case egregiously used to inflate management fees.Hi Sally-Anne,
I think you may be taking the wrong messages from what you have read. Someone needs to pay to maintain the gate and driveway on your estate. It's a legitimate expense and will vary over time. It's not a public highway so the public has no interest in paying for it. The owners, such as you, are responsible for maintaining your gates and driveway. This will be done through a service charge and management company.
The only place the government might legislate is improving the ability of freeholders with positive covenants to pay service charges to have a legal say in how that service charge is managed. They will not do away with service charges... Someone has to maintain your gate and driveway and it won't be the public.
What the government needs to do is to give freeholders the same rights as leaseholders so that we can form a residents management company to take over the running of common areas ourselves, and also give us the right to acquire the freehold of common areas. Freeholders have no legal recourse at present and this is very different to the position of leaseholders in (say) a block of flats.
I think Sally-Anne understands the issues and potential liability, but I think it will be impossible to get the annual service charges limited in the way she hopes.0 -
I would never like to buy a house like this, but despite the advice given some people will pay to pay a service charge and expect the government to intervene.
I cannot believe that people refuse to buy, then this sort of practice will stop.
Watch out for the next thread from op
Someone is parking in my space
My service charge was £900 I am fleeced0 -
OldMusicGuy wrote: »Maybe you haven't been on the end of receiving incorrect and invalid service charges? It has been a nightmare for us. The problem is not who pays for the service charges (the residents always will), it is what happens when they are badly managed and in our case egregiously used to inflate management fees.
What the government needs to do is to give freeholders the same rights as leaseholders so that we can form a residents management company to take over the running of common areas ourselves, and also give us the right to acquire the freehold of common areas. Freeholders have no legal recourse at present and this is very different to the position of leaseholders in (say) a block of flats.
I think Sally-Anne understands the issues and potential liability, but I think it will be impossible to get the annual service charges limited in the way she hopes.
Your issue is exactly where I said the government might legislate and it's also not Sally Anne's issue. Read the original post. She is not concerned about unscrupulous management agents she believes she shouldn't have to pay to maintain her driveway and gates because she is freehold. She is effectively looking at this as a ground rent she shouldn't have to pay and people have validated her opinion by talking about a separate issue.
Asking for a fixed service charge for the maintenance of a driveway and gates shows a fundamental lack of understanding as to what a service charge is for, who benefits from the maintenance of the driveway and who should pay. The service charge is legitimate, can and likely will vary over time and must be borne by the people who benefits from the assets it maintains.
Managing agents that rip people off through a legitimate charge is a fundamentally different issue and one I think they government will address through giving freeholders the ability to appoint their own.0 -
I don't think it is difficult to predict what the electrical cost for using the gate and maintaining the common road area will be (it's a very small estate). Its a relatively simple calculation and can be converted into a annual cost quite easily.
I appreciate there may be unforseen events, e.g. vandalism, which I would happily pay for, providing I am presented with 3 or so quotes by the management company to ensure I am paying a fair price and not just sent the bill.
As OldMusicGuy said, these management companies are set up to make profits and not deliver value for money for the residents. Freeholders have no rights, hence the term fleecehold.
Sally-Anne0 -
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't buy in to the situation you're talking about. There is no excuse for the builder to be retaining the freehold on such a small development and you're right to be suspicious.
The point I am making is service charges aren't evil it's CONTROL of service charges that is key. I'm one of the directors of my resident association and we've just put the cost up by more than inflation because of genuine costs. We've also just changed our management company. Is anyone being ripped off? No, because we have CONTROL.
You have also just acknowledged that costs can't be predicted, certainly not over 99 years.0
This discussion has been closed.
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