Service charge

New Build Inspections

JPHH

New Member
Hi all, possibly the wrong area for this so please forgive me.

Me and my partner bought a bellway home in January 2015. The property is loose hold and we pay £175 a year for the pleasure.

We also pay a service charge for what they class as "communal areas" which is no more than a walk through from one side of the development to the other (to which residents have challenged having blocked off)

The charge for the upkeep of these areas was £37 a year per household, which increased to £48 last year and now £61.94 for October 16 to October 17.

I have personally complained several times about the condition of the areas and rubbish that accumulates by the entrance and don't feel it is worth what we as residents are paying in total

Can the company raise charges like this without notification to residents?

I cannot find anything in my deeds and wondered if I purchase the freehold will I be liable to this charge?
 

Tony

Administrator
I seem to remember someone starting a petition about this as it is largely unregulated. There must be a contract somewhere, ask to see it.
 

Dez

New Member
Unfortunately Service or Management Charges are the next cash cow. The poison pill in these arrangements on many large estates is the amount of unadopted roads and car parking turnarounds that are included in these agreements. If builders have done a crap job of tarmacing this will be quickly finding its way onto future service charges and it will not be as cheap as keeping the grass mowed. Sign the petition with regard to getting to grips with this potential nice little earner and having better control over things.
 

NewHomeExpert

Well-Known Member
Its here:-
Everyone should sign it.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/167660

The original post is here:
http://forum.snagging.org/snagging-...n-new-homes-ombudsman.html?highlight=petition

Perhaps you could make it a sticky?

One of the other recommendations is that buyers should have a mandatory right to inspect (or get a professional to inspect) their new home BEFORE they legally complete. This will be a huge benefit to all snagging inspectors.
It's thanks to me and my presentation, its in the Inquiry Report.

Have you read it yet?
Highlights here:
APPG Inquiry Report : More homes - Fewer Complaints
 
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Dez

New Member
Excellant piece of work which needs much more circulation because it rings true everywhere and need to get the vote numbers up. I circulate where I find local dissent usually with neighbourhood web groups so that this anger is captured and your work gets the 10k votes needed for a good parliamentary airing. We are paying rolls royce prices and getting shite rabbit hutches and being treated like plebs by some of these Builders. With regard to warranty remediation recommendation from experience I would have also added some wording around focus on "timely"remediation as it seems to me there is a Builders conspiracy to ignore their crap workmanship as long as possible and wear their customers down by ignorance and attrition so that we just give up or do it themselves or get real genuine tradespersons in to do their job properly for them. We are paying top dollar for housing and getting bodging,lazy, incompetent, unskilled lame brains.....and thats just the management!! There appears to be no pride in the workmanship as the contractors are being kicked to get the numbers up to pay the mega bonus volume payments to the dozy suits in head and regional offices. If the contractors management were to inspect their teams workmanship on site there would be a vast improvement but the constant cut back on contract pricing means that even foremen are few or far between to ensure that the contractor delivers quality work....even the Builders management do not seem to understand that they should walk the talk and start making sure their contractors are doing their job not wait for the customers to find out their snagging for them. So totally agree about getting a pro snagger in to act on the clients behalf before sign off. I just had half an hour walkaround on signoff day and they needed more paper for the amount of visula issues that even a brain dead manager could have spotted and corrected easily...could they actually be bothered.
 
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