Freehold....with £600 maintenance charge

[RealRubyMember]

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155903219#/?channel=RESBUY

So I could refuse to pay, if it's truly freehold...? How do EAs get away with this

I would assume the charge is for the communal gardens

The service charge will be for upkeep of the common facilities - a bike shed is mentioned, there is probably garden or at least grass that needs to be mown and possibly upkeep of unadopted streets and footpaths as well as the parking spaces.

A true freehold would have no such charges

Me too

I live on an estate in a freehold house and pay a service charge. With us it's for the gardener to maintain the gardens, entrance gates, fences etc etc

If one of us refused to pay there would be a legal process to recover the service charges plus costs

We own the freehold of the estate in the same way as described in the property details

Look up fleecehold charges.

If you don't like the charge then don't buy the house. The charge will be part of the requirements of ownership - you can get your conveyancing lawyer to review the documents if you want further details and your lawyer would also explain the consequences of not paying the charges if you decided to go ahead and buy the property.

Homes built on some private estates will have maintenance charges to pay for things like grounds upkeep/roads upkeep etc etc. The reason for this being that if it is private land then the council won't do common area maintenance - like roadsweeping/litter cleaning/mowing the common grassy areas/road repair etc. The UK doesn't have as many of these arrangements as, for example, the United States (where such charges are frequently referred to as Homeowners Association Fees) but if you buy a freehold property on a privately owned estate then a charge like this would be normal. If you refuse to pay it then the estate would take steps to enforce the obligation to pay.

Again: unless this is a dream home of yours for some reason then just look for a different place to buy.

This is wrong.

You will own the freehold of the property.
There is likely be a management company who own the common parts of the development and there will be a covenant in the transfer deed to pay to the management company a service charge for the upkeep of those common parts - cleaning/lighting etc.

It is a perfectly standard arrangement for a house on a development and doesn’t mean you don’t own the freehold of a particular house.

Are those the houses behind the bigger house on the crossroads? IIRC they took a long time to sell when they first built them. They seemed expensive then, and still seem expensive now.

This is normal, it will pay for the upkeep of some part of the surrounding estate. No, you can't refuse to pay!

It is very common now for new builds to come with service charge for communal upkeep. By all means look elsewhere, but if you want a newish build you may have accept that you need to pay a service charge.