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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think our neighbours are ridiculous for paying this and refuse to pay my "share"

999 replies

Hiphopapotamus4 · 16/05/2017 21:20

A house on our road came up for sale recently (its empty at the moment, was rented) and as you do, I had a nosey at the particulars on Right Move. In the description in says that there is a service charge of £500 per year. I thought this was odd as we pay no such charge and it's not a flat or leasehold or anything like that so I couldn't figure out what the charge was for.

I ran into another neighbour who made a comment about the price it was for sale for so I commented that I noticed it had a service charge and how odd that was. Neighbour gave me a funny look and said "yes, well we all pay the service charge" I said that we don't and have never been told anything about it or asked for payment. I asked her what it was for exactly and she didn't really know but kept saying "we all have to pay it".

Now, she has obviously been and spoken to some of the other neighbours about this and they are now annoyed that we don't pay when everyone else does. They want us to start paying it so that their share becomes less. However NOBODY knows what it is for, they all just pay it without questioning it. I said I wouldn't be paying anything unless they can tell me what it is for and what "service" I am receiving.

AIBU to think they have all been a bit foolish to pay so much money without questioning it and that they should stop paying it/find out what it's for rather than ask me to contribute!

To be clear, this is a fairly normal road with no communal areas and no "services" (other than the usual bin collections etc). Apparently the invoice just says "service charge" and does not specify exactly what service it is.

(I am currently the "bad neighbour" and need to make amends - may have to bribe the neighbourhood with homemade chocolate brownies then convince them to stage a mass refusal of payment and demand for refunds!)

OP posts:
Peanutbuttercheese · 17/05/2017 07:59

I'm thinking ground rent, mil owns the ground rent to a few properties.

LucyLocketLostIt · 17/05/2017 07:59

Placemarking

zzzzz · 17/05/2017 07:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Rollerbird · 17/05/2017 08:03

Checking back later

Lozzie12 · 17/05/2017 08:03

How strange.

AndieNZ · 17/05/2017 08:05

How did you get on, OP?

SoupDragon · 17/05/2017 08:06

If you don't have street lights that suggests that the road isn't adopted by the highways and is actually private so could it be to maintain this? If you don't have street lights that suggests that the road isn't adopted by the highways and is actually private so could it be to maintain this?

Although my parents live in an unadopted road that does have street lighting. I don't know if they pay a service charge over and above council tax though. The council do not maintain the surface of the road though. As I recall, there is someone who owns the road and they are meant to repair it, it took a lot of tracking down though!

MugwumpJism · 17/05/2017 08:07

Blatant placemark

GingerHanna · 17/05/2017 08:08

Shameless placemarking... have some Cake

SplitInfinitive · 17/05/2017 08:11

We used to have to pay a service charge where we used to live. That was for the pumping station which was private, and a small play area which had been put in by the developer. We knew who we were all paying to and for what though.

WellThisIsShit · 17/05/2017 08:11

Piqued my interest somewhat in a situation that isn't made clear within the first few posts on here! Awaiting news :)

Footle · 17/05/2017 08:13

In our old house we got an annual letter from an agent acting for a private person, demanding £40 ground rent. This letter arrived every year for about 30 years. We never responded, never paid. At one point the agent wrote offering to accept £40 in payment of the whole 'debt'. We ignored that too.
Nothing happened. The people who bought from us haven't reported any problem.

MrsMoastyToasty · 17/05/2017 08:14

I live in the Bristol area and have a freehold property which had a ground rent payable. It was something like £50 per year (back in 2000). When I contacted the company issuing it they said it was a historic payment. I bought out the rent for £100. The lady on the phone seemed quite relieved not to have to administer it any more. BTW my house is 1930s
My DM who lives the other side of Bristol also paid ground rent on her 1960s property.

zigzagbetty · 17/05/2017 08:21

Kind of hoping it is a scam to add to the drama 😀

Gileswithachainsaw · 17/05/2017 08:22

Oooh I'd love it if you were a hero...

Mine you im.fully expecting everyone to be mad you are interferring and "changing how it's always been" Grin

Watch out for flaming bags of dog shit on your doorstep

confusedat23 · 17/05/2017 08:22
Brew
MissWilmottsGhost · 17/05/2017 08:26

My house had some ground rent type charge in the deeds, when I bought it I paid a one off fee to clear it. It was only about £12 a year though.

Maybe your elderly neighbors have something like this and have been paying it for so long they have never questioned it. £500 seems an awful lot though.

BumWad · 17/05/2017 08:28

Place marking

User06383 · 17/05/2017 08:29

Stop chin wagging with next door and tell us the answer 😂 plus the council offices must be open by now.

Gentlygrowingoldermale · 17/05/2017 08:29

Many years ago a place we bought had a telegraph pole in the garden, the phone people paid us £5 a year.

Place marking really!

MadamePomfrey · 17/05/2017 08:32

Maybe next door is the criminal mastermind behind the plot and has kidnapped the op dramatic way to placemark-

ThatIsNachoCheese · 17/05/2017 08:33

Unashamedly placemarking...

dancingqueen345 · 17/05/2017 08:35

Placemarking too

iklboo · 17/05/2017 08:35

Maybe it's a sacrifice charge and your houses are built on an old Native (insert where you live) burial ground. The fee stops haunting and poltergeist activity.

Not place marking. No, not me

rightwhine · 17/05/2017 08:35

Has the neighbour opened her curtains yet?