Management companies on estates - freehold

[grumpypants]

Any experiences of these? Buying freehold, but with an annual charge (eventually the freeholders will own the management company) and a clause about being able to charge more in the event of a shortfall? Read all the legal stuff, just wanted RL anecdotes - thanks!

bump!

PILs' house is like that. They have the big problem that the roads/pavements etc aren't adopted so maintained by the management co rather than the council. The council want a huge amount of money to bring the roads up to scratch before they'll take it on. Same arrangement with play areas/ community hall etc.

You need to be very clear whether the residents will have to pay for the upkeep of anything and if so, to what standard.

oh thanks - it seems like a fixed amount and then more if there's a deficit iyswim?

We have two where we live. One for the general estate and then another one for our area.

Just in the process of taking over the area one from the builders - taking ages for all the legal paper. We all have covenants although you can't seem to enforce some of it - things like no parking on the estate roads. Slight parking issue here as they only built the drives with one car space. How many cars actually fit in the garages? and how many homes only have one car!!

We are all shareholders of the management company and all have one share. When we sell our houses we have to show that we have paid all the management fees.

As the company for the individual area we can set our own annual charge based on what is needed. So we can include or exclude what we wish as long as the committee agree.

Thanks Sushi - i think it's a bit difficult as the house doesn't actually use the communal drive - only the five houses at the front use the carpark iyswim, and the others have separate drives and off road parking for visitors. The paths don't go as far as the house, so it's a bit odd to be paying for something you can't access!