freehold property annual service charge

[AuntieLydia]

I think information may have been withheld from me when I bought my house and not sure what I can do about it. I've been told I have to start paying an annual service charge of £240 for maintenance of common areas of the housing development I live in, starting in January.
It's not a gated community, everywhere is open to the public.

This was unexpected. I'm an owner occupier, the house is 20 years old, freehold, bought 10 years ago. I've looked in the house deeds and the other paperwork from the house purchase and can't find anything about a service charge.

I've googled and found info on "Fleecehold" but this seems to be more about people buying a new house rather than my situation.

Does anyone have any advice or experience.

There are about 200 houses, all closely fitted together like a jig saw. No open spaces or play areas. There is a water feature, just an area of shallow still water surrounded by railings.

Sounds odd - they wouldn't get away with that nowadays - even small sites of less than 50 houses I've seen with play areas and common areas of landscaping

It could be a shared access road - is your house accessed of a main road - several houses effectively coming off a single secondary road/shared driveways or shared road? Sometimes these cal with a management company liability to maintain that section of road in terms of weeding/planting etc especially if it's a block pave finish

There's a lot of block paving over the whole estate and it does get very weedy and untidy. Perhaps that's where the money will go.

@AuntieLydia

That most likely explains it then! Not all roads like these were "adopted" on developments that old so you should check if you do access your property off a block paved road who is responsible for the maintenance and repairs?

£240 per year per resident at best is going to get minor maintenance such as jet wash, re sand and weed control

@ChaChaCha2012 that isn't strictly true. Op would have a case against the conveyancer and I doubt it would be time barred because time only starts running from the date Op 'knew or reasonably should have known' about the issue.

Line, that is the case for Scotland, not England.

OP, if you think the government will sort this you're in for a very very long wait. They've been promising action for at least four years, and as yet, not a thing. They've even got a copy and paste letter for if you write to your MP!

@ChaChaCha2012 you are mistaken. Section 14A provides a secondary limitation period. Although it is for a shorter period of 3 years it starts running from the date when the claimant had the relevant knowledge about the relevant facts, as defined. These include knowledge that he had suffered damage, knowledge of the identity of the defendant, and knowledge that the damage was attributable to the acts or omissions of the defendant.

You really need to review your deeds and also the TP1 etc. May be worth also downloading an actual copy of the deeds from the land registry in case they vary. I struggle to believe that the transfer went through to you without some detail of this being included.

Ask for back copies of all the minutes. What was the process for forming the LTD company that will issue e invoice and election of directors?

Also ask which the maintenance company is and see if there is any connection to any of the company directors. You can look the company up on the Companies House website which lists all the directors

Check the accounts fees for the Ltd Company too, we've just taken one on where the previous accountant was charging nearly £4k to the management co. for basic annual accounts.
Several of the (possibly newer) directors suspect a link between 2 of the 'founding' directors and the accountant 🤷‍♀️

How did the management committee get voted in? Who appointed them? Persimmons? I'd be going back to that email account and demanding further information, names and proof they are who they say.

I'm a director of a resident's management company.

I use a yahoo email address.

I'm legitimate! So I would be questioning how the election etc. took place and why you weren't invited to participate.

However if all is above board be aware that being a director can be fairly onerous and unrewarding - I estimate I spent around 2 hrs a week on block management (and we also employ a management company but they need careful oversight - before I got involved we were getting billed for lots of jobs by contractors that they hadn't actually done so we ended up paying multiple times to replace the same bloody lightbulb).

This is my second gig as a director (two different developments) and I have to say property management in a great big unregulated mess. it is very hard to get good service from agents/ contractors and it is often hard to unpick if there are conflicts of interest between the two.

You pay a lot more for a lot less than you would if you were employing the tradesmen to work inside your property and leaving mess/ damage to other bits of the building after completing a job seems to be totally acceptable. It drives me mad.

The letter only says that they think your property qualifies for the charge and that they are checking with the land registry to see who is actually liable. If your deeds say nothing then it might be that you aren't liable at all.

This is totally dodgy.

Why is it addressed 'dear resident'? What is this company? Where are they registered, who are the owners, on what authority do they claim the right to charge service charge if you are the freeholder? Why are they using a hotmail account.

I'd treat it as a scam and warn your neighbours. Do NOT send them any money.

I grew up in a village of freehold houses whose owners all paid an annual maintenance fee for upkeep of common land and other bits and pieces so it’s perfectly normal but you should have known all about it at the time of purchase OP. Sounds as though your solicitor didn’t quite do the full job.

Also, do not email them with your details!