service charges

[laracroft2001]

Hi

Not sure if anyone can help. I part own/part rent a flat in London, and we have recently been informed that the service charge is going to be increased by £100 per month!!! This will take the service charge to £3650 per year. Many of the other residents are pissed off as well and we do not get value for money. This is an extortianate amount of money. Can/how do we fight it?

Also when we were sold the flats we were told that all utility bills were included in the service charge (heating hotwater water rates and electricity) hence why the high service charge of 2500 per annum was not too bad, it then transpired that its only heating and hot water that is included. Can we do anything about this?

None of us has anything in writing, but there is at least 20 residents who were told that ALL utilities were included

thanks in advance

my mother in law had the same problem a couple of months ago. she bought a flat about 3 years ago where she paid for "maintenance costs and electricity etc for communal areas". this was a newbuild block of about 24 apartments on a site with apartment and houses. she then got a letter at the end of last year saying that the amount was going up by about £100 per month because the builders had gone bust and were not building anymore properties on the land and that originally the total amount had been divided between the properties that were going to be built in total but as they werent finishing the development the cost had to be divided between the houses that had been built. it transpired that her and the other property owners had three options -1. manage the overheads and cleaning etc between themselves, 2 get a new management company in that would charge less or 3 put up with it.

she went to CAB for advice and i am not sure what she ended up doing because she is now renting the property out and has retired abroad

You can only be charged service charges in line with your lease, which is a legal document you would have signed when you bought the flat. If you no longer have a copy, the Land Registry (the tel no is online) will store a copy and will send it to you for a small fee - around £12 last time I had to buy one. Get it, read it, and you will then have all the information you need. Good luck.

County Durham lass is right. Pay up, manage yourself or get another management company. It is a thankless task. Bills throughout the world have gone up, did you think your apt would be immune. The management co cannot cover costs if they do not collect enough in service charges.

Hi

No did not think out apartment would be immune at all, however we have been sent a service charge schedule and over 75% of the costs are under 'management services' and can not be explained by the company despite many of us asking for copies of accounts etc

I maybe need to put a longer post explaining it all in detail ...

Thanks for replies

In my experience managing agents are money grabbers who don't do a lot for the money they receive. Do review your lease and you can get great free advice from
www.lease-advice.org/

You may like to consider setting up a Right to Manage company, if you are eligible. This cuts out the need for managing agents as you form a company with other leaseholders to manage the building.

thanks for your reply, we have gone to lease advice who have advised going to the LVT!