Anyone live in a house/flat that has to pay service charge?

We used to have a service charge as part of our rent in our old flat. However, others (council tenants or those would had bought the flat), it was an extra charge on top, rather than as part of the rent.

This created a nightmare as many people didn't pay the charge and therefore the maintenance company wouldn't do anything! It was nice the couple of times they hoovered the stairs or changed the lightbulbs but they weren't very effective.

I can see the point of them so I hope your experience is a lot better than ours.

The road in our street has been adopted by the local authority but the grassy areas and footpath haven't so we pay a service charge. That said the service area covers about 10 streets so we don't always know what's going on - they're usually pretty good - the grassy areas are regularly maintained and dodgy drain covers and, after last winter, crumbling concrete steps have all been repaired eventually (we're talking in a few months rather than years and certainly faster than the Council would see to it). It costs us an annual charge of about £80-120.

I live on an estate and we pay £74 per month, per property. I think our set up is slightly different though as it is run and managed by a Board of Directors. Our payment covers landscaping, parking control or rugby game days so the resident spaces dont get used by non-resdients, buildings insurance and the upkeep of the buildings (internal areas for the flats and external painting and window cleaning of all properties).

We just pay for stuff as and when it's needed. For the 6 months to Dec 11 our proportion of the service charges (weekly cleaning, gardening, repairs and management charges) was £220.

We live in a group of 20 maisonettes, each paying £35 a month maintenance and £60 a year ground rent.

The maintenance of the grounds and buildings is ok, they need a kick every so often but the management company is actually run by residents who also have a day job!

We pay £500 every 6 months, they offer no way to spread the cost it has to be paid in one go, I have even received extra bills at the end of the year for and extra £2-300 for additional work which hasnt even been done!

The normal work i.e. hoovering landscaping, sweeping car park etc etc never gets done and its so frustrating when you are paying for it!

When we bought the apartment off plan, the charge was explained to us in a very different way to what it actually is. If we knew it would be like this we wouldnt of bought when we did.

Over a year we are paying over £1,000 extra, which could be put towards our mortgage in a different property so after the wedding we need to start saving again to move!

Our second flat has a service charge. I hate it as we still have to pay it when it's let out and can't pass it on to the tenants and the place just will not sell. I wouldn't mind so much but they keep increasing the charge and not really doing an awful lot. If H could attend the meetings (it's his flat really) then he would but they are at noon on a weekday so all the old biddies in the block just go on over spending and not getting the best prices.

I own my flat as a leaseholder and pay around £300 a year to the freeholder (happens to be my local council borough). I get twice yearly bills, one of which provides an accurate cost of work completed, so it can go up or down from the estimation. I have chosen to spread the cost and pay monthly by direct debit.

When I was buying, I was informed of the service charges and obtained a 3 year history of costs so that I could consider these additional costs and reflect this in the offer I made on the price of the property.

Hollie, definitely get in touch with your Proprty Manager. You need to email Customer Services or phone them. They will attempt to deal with things first but if you mark it as a complaint it should go straight through to your PM. With regards to paying monthly, phone Credit Control. You're right that you can't pay monthly as standard but it's worth asking. They will look at cases individually and if needed, take advice from your PM. If you need any help, give me a shout. x

Thanks Bethanw, I have complained in the past but still nothing so maybe i do need to take photos etc to prove the work hasnt been done!

x

Ours is about £200 per year (company is RMG I think) and thats meant to pay for maintenance of the estate, planting, maintenance of the play park and emptying of the communal bins etc.

I would do that. Especially on days where you know the cleaner/gardener has been etc. Like i say, if you need any more help or want to give me your PM's name (on email) i'll see if i can do anything for you (as you may have guessed i work for your management company but i've been on maternity leave for the last year and am not due back until the middle of next year. I'm still in touch there though so am happy to try and help). x