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

[Hiphopapotamus4]

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 - please tell work that you have to leave now because of an emergency. Our need to get to the bottom of this mystery definitely counts as an emergency

My face getting to the end this thread and there's no answer yet:

6demanding haha to Scooby doo-

"And I would have gotten away with it too-if it weren't for that meddling hiphop"

Really rather than the invoice (which anyone can replicate these days with a computer and printer), you need to see the envelope it came in and also check how and where the bill is paid - i.e. is it by direct debit to the same bank account as the 'real' council tax? If so, it's probably genuine, if not...
Envelopes for council bills are usually very easily identifiable and although they can of course be forged, it would be a lot harder that an 'invoice'.

Is the account and sort codes the same on the council and possibly dodgy invoice?

I think you're seriously overestimating how much the estate agent is likely to care

^ This^
My son bought a flat via an estate agent which had what seemed a disproportionately large service charge compared with other flats. When he was considering it I asked for details of what it actually covered - you would have thought I was asking for the moon. Apparently the residents are sent an information pack when they first move in and if they lose it it costs £200 to get a replacement.

But at least it was a flat, so you would expect a service charge.

Roger sounds like the man to speak to, I bet he will call the council and question it

I'd be worried that you might suddenly be landed with a backdated bill for the past x years of non payment.... Have you checked your own office copy entries for your house at the Land Registry online? I can't think of any charges that attach to properties and transfer to new owners which aren't registrable

Oh well, if they 'don't want to cause any bother' by ringing the Council, then they can hardly expect you to want to! So that's the end of it.

For some reason this thread reminds me of an urban myth I read about some time ago. Here it is to help you pass the time until the OP tells us what is actually going on.

"A Well-Planned Retirement

Outside England ‘s Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant who collected the fees for cars ($1.40) and for buses (about $7).

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn’t show up; so the zoo management called the city council and asked it to send them another parking agent.

The council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the zoo’s own responsibility. The zoo advised the council that the attendant was a city employee.
The city council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the city payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain or France or Italy is a man who’d apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own and then had simply begun to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day — for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7 million dollars … and no one even knows his name."

Definitely check whether the payment details/account numbers/address is the same as the council tax bill. This is looking more like a scam now.

Have you lived in this road for longer than the people you know to be paying? A scammer may have targeted each victim shortly after they moved in and may have just missed you out as you were already living there when they started.

And it's none of the NDNs business if you pay it or not. They get a bill, you don't! Good times!

Is it an old British by-law that every road/cul-de-sac has to have a "Roger?"

Rip off Britain on now. Angela Rippon and Co would be all over this!

placemarking. Sorry never shamelessly placemarked before but this is so fascinating!

We live on a private road and the road upkeep is paid for by the Big House at the end placemarking me no not at all

Can you not phone the council and just pretend to be her?

🕵️‍♀️ how strange?!

Just seen this, I don't know where you live though, obviously!

"Residents of eco-towns could have to pay a service charge on top of their council tax bills to pay for subsidised bus travel and other costs."

"People living in some of the green settlements could have to pay up to £500 a year on top of their council tax"

My fear is that you may end up with a big bill

I would call the council. But I am a 'Roger'

Are all the contact details for the council the same as the council tax bill?

I would phone the council and claim you are panning on buying the empty property but would like to know what the service charge is for.

Sometimes we see rent-charges applied to freehold properties (these allow certain positive covenants to run with the land) or service charge to companies like greenbelt for maintenance of communal areas on new build estates, but never for this amount, I must admit.

Am interested OP, so place-marking.

Ps - am property solicitor.

Even though the invoice looks the same as the council one , is the money going to the same place?

Has to be a scam. . .