To avoid new build homes with maintenance charges??

[Auramigraine]

Hi

Some lovely new build homes being built near me at the moment which we could and I’m desperate to move (have been for a while) but these maintenance charges are putting me off, says £72 a year (freehold but private roads, grass cutting etc) and I know I would live in fear of these charges becoming extortionate. Am I worrying with good reason or is this a normal and ok charge to live with??

All new builds have these charges these days. The important thing is to look at who is managing the service charges and know how they are setting them

I think it makes a big difference whether the charges are set by a management company or the residents.

The residents have a joint incentive to keep the costs as low possible. But can introduce a difficult angle to neighbourly relations.

We pay about £7 per month. We've been in the house for nearly 20 years and think the highest we've paid was £8 per month. It depends what work has been done over and above the usual grass cutting e.g. maintain playpark/cut back trees, etc

I don't think all new builds have them because I've never seen them and all the new builds in my village (3 different developments just finished) don't have them.

I'd want something in the deeds which limits/caps how much it could increase by. If I was happy with the limit I'd consider it.

We have these apparently but in the 6 years we have lived here we haven’t been asked for them. Apparently you can opt for the community to create their own management company which is much cheaper. Someone would have to organise it all though which seems a ball ache.

We pay about £10 a month. There are a lot of green spaces and gardens that are maintained. The gardeners are here every day doing some work. It ensures that the estate always looks neat and tidy and that the community areas are cared for. There’s a lake too, which needs maintenance.

We can take the management company to task if we don’t feel they’re doing g a good job.

All new builds have them.

That's cheap

Mine is over £300 a year

We pay £40 per month, but the houses are in a proper park, so maintenance does cost a fair bit. set by the residents association, so everybody is motivated to keep it reasonable

We lived in a new build with maintenance charges and ground rent. Never again.

We used to get random bills for repairs to communal areas we had absolutely no control over and no choice but to pay them.

We got a bill for £1000 for soffits and fascia repair, the management company were scammed by a repair company, and we got a bill for another £1000 a few months later.

My worry with these places is that the costs could very well become extortionate and depending on how many others are in the development, you probably don't have much say.

We have lived in three new build homes two of which had maintenance charges.
The costs are kept low, it is in the interest of the residents to do so.
The first time we moved there were no issues with our sale the second time it was more of an admin issue.
Our solicitor advised that more and more companies are getting wise to this and see it as a money making opportunity
We have loved our homes but will not miss the maintenance charges tbh. Also knowing you have to pay if others don't keep the place tidy or in our current property for dog poo removal bins can be annoying! We don't have a dog

Foxy a lake?! How beautiful! I think I might need to stop discounting new build estates!

Bought a new build 2 years ago and don't have any maintenance charges to pay. This was important to me because I would have a similar fear! So new builds without maintenance fees do exist

@Foxyloxy1plus1 I also live in a new build with beautiful grounds originally laid out by Capability Brown we as residents have a responsibility to maintain them, we have ponds and lakes, beautiful trees. Our gardens are here every week. We have loads of birds because of the trees this month cuckoos, owls, goldfinches and chaffinches.
It gives me so much joy to live in such a beautiful place completely worth the £250 per year.

Not all new builds have them. Our estate does not. We're looking to move and I won't look at anything with a service charge. When we have new builds available on an estate without any service charge.

There’s a lake, several playgrounds, a trim trail, community centre, green spaces and special garden areas.

It depends on the developer I suppose. Our house overlooks a green and the lake is a couple of minutes walk away.

It’s worth checking the terms that govern the charge (these should be accessible from the factor). Some will indicate what the fees will be capped at. If they are uncapped there is more of a chance they will increase, but often the terms also allow residents to ditch the factor for someone else so they are incentivises to keep it low. Have a read and see how protected you are as an owner if you see a new build you like.

I seen a new build in zone 3 in London and the service charge was £3000 pa plus ground rent £300 plus £500 maintenance charge for a heating system plus mortgage and bills on top Fairly typical of the new builds round here.

Ive been reading up about this lately
It all depends if the council will adopt the roads etc
and it is more popular in the north of england

And that was for a 2 bed flat costing £580,000 available on help to buy

As long as it is run properly, I'm generally vastly in favour of living of in places with communal charges. The money pays for the place to be nicer than an place where no-one is responsible for common land.

(I guess technically "no-one" means local government, which is just a larger community you also pay charges to, but the less local the community, the less of a shit they give about your exact location.)

I think if someone is worried about a less than £100 a year charge, they can't really afford to be a home-owner. My flat charge has just gone up from £250 a month to £300, but at that price is till cheaper than new-builds in the area.

Charges where I live are actively kept down by the management company, which is owned by residents, and has several unpaid directors who are lawyers, accountants, insurance specialists etc in their day jobs, so fairly good at holding the managing agent to account.

Our charges have gone down!

@PettyContractor im not worried about the £72 charge....... I’m worried about how much that £72 charge will be 5/10/20 years down the line!!

It would be my forever home so wouldn’t be moving on elsewhere after a while. I’m being cautious, absolutely nothing wrong with that. Thanks for all the advice and agree with Others who say that not all new builds have these charges. I have a few friends at work in new builds and when I asked them about these charges they looked at me like I had two heads, never heard of them and the council tend to grass cutting etc.

It depends on what the s106 agreement says about road adoption, in many cases. If the council aren't adopting the roads then it remains private land and the management company has to organise maintenance on behalf of the residents. Check whether the management company is enshrined in the contract.

And also, you're actually better protected in many ways if you buy on an estate which has flats on it as leasehold properties are much more stringently regulated under law, so you would benefit from that too.

Check out all the details and then you know what you are committing too