Estate Charge

[Feelingstrange2]

My son is soon to view an eight year old new build and it has a small annual Estate Charge.

Pretty sure this is very different from the ground rent charge scandal- can someone confirm?

Should he ask any other questions on viewing about this charge? I'm.thinking along the lines is could it one day involve a massive increase like for re tarmacing the road.

I would avoid it like the plague; we cannot WAIT to get out of our situation like this - constant charge increases out of our control. 6 years in and the charge has increased 185% - home is now unsellable.
And yes it is different to ground rent issue which should resolve over time with leasehold reforms.

We live in an estate with a charge and currently buying one elsewhere with same charge. Very common now as councils don't want the responsbility to maintain the grounds. We've never experienced any issues with huge increases etc.

The roads are often adopted by the council - I'd be more wary if they aren't.

Gosh, how different they can be for different places.

Many thanks for your replies.

It makes sense that councils don't want extra responsibilities especially mowing nice green banks and play areas etc. It's just we've always avoided homes that "involve others" probably because I don't want to be out of control! In reality though, we still ended up with issues here just ones we couldn't have predicted!

Very normal now and I would say it would be more unusual to find a NB WITHOUT an estate charge.

Some people get muddled up with NB leasehold houses (which as a PP said, is getting sorted) but they are very different things.

We are in a NB and pay this charge, I would rather it was adopted and we did not have to pay but as I said earlier, it seems to be the norm now.
Our charge is around £160pa and we get annual accounts to show spending, sink fund etc and last year we actually got a rebate.

Going forward we would love for the green spaces to be adopted (like the roads have) but looking at it from the councils POV, why would they adopt and then be responsible for maintenance, grass cutting, bins etc when they are already getting paid council tax without having the responsibility?

It's really typical for new builds now. We lived in an 80s built "private estate" (sounds a lot fancier than it was) with a service charge and it went from £300 a year to £400 in the 7 years we lived there. The communal areas were really immaculately kept and accounts were produced annually - most of the charge went on the estate management companies fees mind you. It wouldn't put me off.

It is very common now but it sounds like the next ground rent scandal waiting to happen to me. There is no regulation.

I'll be avoiding those estates.

Yes my son has decided to just avoid.

Thanks

Although he understands why it is. The one he did a drive by to see had banks of nicely cut grass and a play area (not that he would use the latter) and he understands that someone needs to maintain them.