Challenging service charge increase

[climbelon]

I own my house (some in the block are shared ownership; ours has been staircased up) and pay a service charge to a local Housing Association for maintenance to a shared car park and walkways. This was £17/month in 2022 and has been steadily increasing. Now we have had a letter proposing an increase to £58/month, a 98% increase since the last one earlier this year.

Any advice on challenging this?

Thank you

Does it also include buildings insurance?
Both insurance and labour costs have gone up well beyond typical inflation is last few years

@WhitbyBee thanks for your response. No, it doesn't include buildings insurance. Will post the list of costings when home in case relevant

You'd be better joining and posting in there https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BEXrBK5ig/?mibextid=K35XfP

Posting the accounts in case anyone here can help.
Thank you @MotherOfRatios. Much appreciated. Helpful links in their description too.

Second page attached - posted too soon and don't seem to be able to edit to add an extra attachment.

These charges are a scam, I’d sell up before it gets much higher. Personally, I’d never buy anywhere with a management charge because you never know how high it’s going to go. No real advice though but hope you can sort it.

@NearlyChristmas2024 selling was my initial reaction too - if the charge doesn't put buyers off! It would be a shame though as there is lots to like about the house.

There seem to be a lot of bought forward charges from the current year.

Salary of person looks extortionate considering they are managing a car park and grounds. Am I missing something?

@MissBridgetJones good point. They claim they will aim to balance it back for the previous year.
And agree about the salary. They have several sites they manage but only seem to be here a few hours every few weeks at the most as far as I have seen (admittedly won't always be there to notice )

I don't know much about this area but your lease should set out how it can be challenged (or the supporting documents)

I think I would also go to the housing ombudsman and my local MP.

They will be hoping noone makes a fuss, but this is outrageous.

@SweetSakura thank you. Our property is freehold which as I understand it legally has even less rights than a leasehold. I will pursue those avenues, thank you.

This is a big increase! In the same situation. We staircased so now have full ownership and are freehold. Ours has only gone up in smaller amounts but has gone from around £25 per month in 2017 to £48 now. What annoys me is we pay the estate fee that the whole new build estate pays. Then have to pay a housing association fee too. So effectively we pay more than the big detached houses when ours was meant to be affordable housing! I hope you can push back on this. I've queried ours but don't think we can do anything about it.