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!)

Very very odd!

Good idea to ring estate agent pretending to be interested buyer

Ooo dig deep and stop a mystery con artist and get all your neighbours a massive payout 😁 I like a happy ending

Forgot to say ours is due to a Covenant, which is with the deeds, and we signed up to when we bought.

I'm intrigued! Also shocked by how many strange fees there are out there, it's interesting

It wouldn't be something like a parish council fee would it? I know in our area there is an extra amount on top of the council tax if you're in an area with a parish council - it's included in your council tax bill but listed separately, so you might not have taken much notice but your neighbours have?

We paid a fee when we bought our last house, because it was originally church land. It is called a chancelry and it indemnified you for 25 years against any call upon your purse from the church for repairs. We also paid a maintenance charge for landscaping and maintenance of the public areas.

We pay in our current property, but the amounts vary, according to the type of property. Those who live in properties with car barns pay more because of the electricity required to light them.

Probably a good job OP hasn't linked to the property or else half of MN might have rang the estate agent

If this existed when the previous owner sold I'd imagine that the Council would have to have issued some kind of Estoppel Certificate to confirm there was no debt outstanding and they were happy for the sale to proceed.

How odd!

I'm still in shock that they all pay this out every year without question.

There's only 12 houses so if all 11 have been paying then it's £5,500 a year!

Are you in a conservation area? We pay a small fee to the trust that manages ours but only about £120 per year

£500 service fee for services rendered noone can name?!

How strange
not place marking

The only thing I can think of is that these are ex-council homes, sold off in the 70s possibly, and that there was a deed of covenant to the council written into the original RTB contract that enables the council to charge an annual freehold service fee.

But if so, it wouldn't be £500 a year. Politically, they couldn't get away with that.

If the houses aren't ex-council, then it's possibly some cost incurred by the council's adoption of the road or facilities or utilities, but again £500 a year is crazy. Unless these houses are mansions, such a sum is going to be around an extra 40% on your annual council tax bill.

The only other thing is possibly some sort of insurance payment taken out because there was originally a planning challenge to the development, but, again, that payment would not be levied by the council.

It is possible, however, that there is a reason why your house is exempt from the charge. It could have been the first one built, and subsequent homes had different contracts or deeds. It could be that the rest of the homes were once owned by the same landlord/land owner whereas yours was not, and their sales had additional financial responsibilities once born by the landowner written into the deeds.

But as a council charge, I'm really struggling to see it.

Could it be Chancel Repair Liability?

If it was, they wouldn't be paying the council and they wouldn't be paying as a service charge - chancel repair liability payment is due on receipted chancel repair invoices, usually to the parish church or the Glebe.

Our house is about 28 yrs old , when we moved in 24 yrs ago something flagged up to do with drains and surface water being paid to a management company . Apparently before our sellers moved they had to settle a bill , we never paid again and never received any invoices . A couple of years ago we got a letter from this management company saying one of the roads needed work on its drains so they wanted everybody to pay £250 , some people paid , some people ,like us, wrote letters saying you've got to be joking first explain what you do , who you are , who the directors of the company are , what other tenders have you had for the work etc . We heard nothing until earlier this year when we got another letter saying that the water board had taken over , the management company was dissolved and that was the end of it . We have no idea what happened to the money they had been paid . I would imagine the OPs scenario is something similar .

Chancel policies/liabilities wouldn't be £500 per year though, would they?

I too am now overly interested in this and am shamelessly placemarking eager to hear what you find out!

If they pay it to the council just tell them it's none of their business what you pay or what you do not pay, council hasn't asked anything from you and you won't pay for this bogus bill lol hilarious how neighbours can be, I have a annual contribution of just over 1k for each 3 neighbours in the estate where I live ,but that includes pool and tennis court maintance , if you have none of that shared then why in earth would you need to pay anything lol crazy neighbours

.

Ooooh, a MN mystery! awaiting diagram!! :)

Something to do with utilities maybe? Could they have paid a gas supplier to lay pipes rather than rely on gas tanks? Or had cables laid if in poor reception spot?

No, strike that, there's no way that would cost so much. I smell a rat. Good luck checking out the invoice tomorrow. We're relying on you Sherlock!

The fact you don't have street lighting suggests it could be a private (unadopted) road, but in that case the council wouldn't be responsible for road maintenance/ drainage. Unless they have taken over the responsibility on behalf of the land owners?

Is it a man hole or drain? Where I live if you own your property and it has a public manhole on for the st your the one responsible for the water company fees etc. Could it be your neighbours split this?

I also think you should call up estate agent pretending to be interested in order to probe for more info!!

So intrigued by this OP! Can't wait to find out what it is.