Excessive service charge increase - Any advice?

[Psycho Sonny]

What would happen if you stopped paying it?

I have to pay some fee to have communal areas kept maintained but I never use those areas. I am in a detached house. The areas are bits of grass around the estate. The dog walkers use, etc.

 

[Mekrel]

What would happen if you stopped paying it?

I have to pay some fee to have communal areas kept maintained but I never use those areas. I am in a detached house. The areas are bits of grass around the estate. The dog walkers use, etc.

You'll be I'm breach of lease and end up paying interest on it until you pay and the landlord has the potential to contact your mortgage provider and take ownership of the flat.

Do you have a residents association?

We managed to change our factors because they were useless. Same with any other contractors. If you have a proactive RA then these issues can be sorted via them.

We don't have a recognised residents association, no. Unfortunately it appears you need to write to the landlord to get your residence association recognised by them. Ridiculous, literally everything works against the leaseholder/consumer

 

[Psycho Sonny]

You'll be I'm breach of lease and end up paying interest on it until you pay and the landlord has the potential to contact your mortgage provider and take ownership of the flat.



We don't have a recognised residents association, no. Unfortunately it appears you need to write to the landlord to get your residence association recognised by them. Ridiculous, literally everything works against the leaseholder/consumer

I am not a leaseholder.

I own the freehold to my home (mortgaged). I live in a detached house.

These payments are to make sure grass is cut in grass communal areas on the other side of the estate and trees are kept trimmed. Nothing else

 

[Skiddley]

Sounds like they mis-calculated the costs initially as it was a new development, and now they're trying to adjust. Tidy little 32% payrise for the management team though!

What's odd is the reserve fund reduces, even though actual costs have increased, you would assume they would want to maintain a reserve %. Looks poorly managed all round.

 

[Mekrel]

I am not a leaseholder.

I own the freehold to my home (mortgaged). I live in a detached house.

These payments are to make sure grass is cut in grass communal areas on the other side of the estate and trees are kept trimmed. Nothing else

I was referring to what would happen to me if I were to stop paying.

Sounds like they mis-calculated the costs initially as it was a new development, and now they're trying to adjust. Tidy little 32% payrise for the management team though!

What's odd is the reserve fund reduces, even though actual costs have increased, you would assume they would want to maintain a reserve %. Looks poorly managed all round.

I agree with you that it’s poorly managed and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to me. I can’t remember if I mentioned it in my 1st post but I even had to show their accounts team that 1st Jan to 31st August wasn’t 274 days...

I’m not sure how they could get their estimates so wrong, it’s not like it’s a massive block of 200 flats. It’s 7 flats in a small block with tiny communal areas.

 

[Mekrel]

Just an update on this, and maybe others in the know mau be able to comment on any of the new information.

Water:
The £900 has been removed and the communal water tap is going to be removed. No one has requested this, so it seems like a punishment for bothering to challenge the cost. I have no idea why such a scenario exists where the tap is kept and a sensible amount is budgeted. Turns out the £444 of water this year is a bill that the management company has paid but has since realised wasn't for water usage of the leaseholders, but was meant for the developer. The developer has told the management company that they'll pay the money back (I assume the water bill should have gone to the developer), but the developer hasn't confirmed this in writing as requested. The management company are saying they're continuing to chase but keep saying things like "if we get it hack".

Fire:
Where to even start on this? The £612 for fire testing has been broken down and I've got other quotes that are literally half of this for the emergency lighting and vent tests! We asked for a breakdown of the £520 and that wasn't even answered, they mentioned a annual fire risk assessment but this sits elsewhere in the budget. So the £520 is for what exactly?

Cleaning:
Turns out the landlord hasn't requested extra cleaning and I've spoken to all but two of the flats and those I've spoken to haven't requested extra cleaning either. The cost for a twice monthly clean works out to £53 per visit and they're spending less than 20 minutes here, so over £150 an hour! I've had quotes from other cleaning companies that put the cost at £25 per visit, another cost that can be halved.

The management company have said they're happy to look at quotes but they're claiming any contractor needs the right liability insurance in place of up to £1M. I have no idea if this is a fair requirement or they're putting hurdles in place.

They've also said they're happy to consider other contractors but ultimately the decision of which contactors are used sits with them. Reads to me: get all the quotes you want, we'll use all we want.

Ultimately, I believe the management company isn't going to review it's costs until it realises we're serious about challenging these costs to the point they'll lose the right to manage the block. Myself and 3 or 4 other leaseholders are meeting them on Tuesday, I'm trying to get the other 3 or 4 to be clearer they're happy to go the RTM route. This is the only way in my opinion, otherwise we're just being a nuisance to them.

 

[Destination]

The management company have said they're happy to look at quotes but they're claiming any contractor needs the right liability insurance in place of up to £1M. I have no idea if this is a fair requirement or they're putting hurdles in place.

They've also said they're happy to consider other contractors but ultimately the decision of which contactors are used sits with them. Reads to me: get all the quotes you want, we'll use all we want.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of them owns or part owns a fire testing company.

All public liability insurance generally starts at £1M, and is often £10M, so i doubt any actual business will have an issue with that.