Just got the paperwork through the post for the new house. It has a copy of a property management company in it and the charges!!

What the hell is this all about? I dont have this on my home now so why do i need it on the new house?

Is there a shared private driveway or grass verges under management?

Its in a housing estate. Detached house with no shared driveways?

<--------Is banging his head against a brick wall!!

Is the property leasehold or freehold?

If it's leasehold then there might be a property management company who levy a charge for stuff

Strange... I'd be asking for a breakdown of the charges.

I think if I were you I'd be having a talk with your solicitor about this property - there seems to be stuff that you are not aware of that you should be aware of before you sign on the dotted line.

Is it a new house on a new development. If so, the common areas might not be adopted by the local authority for some time, particularly if there are more houses to be built. If this is the case, the builder might be asking for a contribution to maintenance of the common areas. This would be unusual and if this is the case, they should have said during the price negotiations so you could have had an opportunity to negotiate it out of the deal. This is more common with housing associations etc who might retain a share of ownership of the properties in the development (to offer affordable housing) and also retain ownership of the common areas.

The other scenario is where the property if bought on a long lease, rather than freehold, in which case the freehold owner might require a contribution to maintenance of stuff not covered by your leasehold ownership. This is more common for properties such as flats though where there is a need to pay into an escrow account for repair of a common roof etc

In fact, under any circumstance, your solicitor should have picked this up during searches.

Yep last house had PM charges.

It was for cleaning of bin alley, cutting of site hedges,
maintenance of communal grass areas leading into the "development"
(and NOT housing estate).

Thank God it wasnt an apartment as they had to pay to paint the
stairwells, fascias etc, and the killer - the roof fund.
Not just the top floor as you might expect.

Hardly ever saw the guys and when they did turn up they cut hedges with chain saws
completely butched the shrubs etc.

The whole thing went t!ts up when a city type moved in and asked the PM company
for a record of everything they spent the money on. Insisted on seeing the 3 quotes
for all the painting, gardening etc.

Cheers

s

Have been reading through all the paperwork and my solicitor has picked up on this and had asked the other solicitor to provide proof for whats its for. Seems to me its just another money making scam to rip honest people off!

Time will tell on this one i think. Im starting to think is it worth all the hassle.


Edit: Its freehold

[Edited on 31/7/12 by matt.c]

my friend in a new estate pays for the maintainance of the central square - its worth it for them as its a big area of grass, paths and plants etc, which is just for residents. The alternative i suppose is an estate completely covered in houses with no recreational area.

Ditto - something you need some info. on, grab the solicitor.

Normally, this is communal areas, verges, roads, non-adoption, yadda, yadda. Sometimes it's even temporary, depending on a range of things.

While you're there with the solicitor, double check on (un)related covenants. You probably don't want a driveway that you can't dump an unroadworthy car on without the curtain twitchers utilising the paperwork.

Check, check, check.

- You are a rarity (after all) as THE person that's looking to buy a house...

They'll probably want a slush fund as well, to fund any repairs.

You should expect them to put the bite on you to contribute to the account for such costs.

They do this in favour of chasing people to pay for work already done.

My brother had a flat in a large house which had one of these, turned out the company that converted the house spookily also owned a property maintenance company.

He got landed with a massive bill to redo the roof and paint all the external windows after 1 year in, had to borrow a load of money and ended up selling as he could not afford the loan and mortgage

It transpired that when the building company was struggling they just shifted people to the property maintance company and screwed the peeps, I would not bother on this basis.

I also owned a flat as a leaseholder, we got applying service form the PM company so refused to pay, in the end we all got together (only three flats) and purchased the freehold, then just bunged £25 a month into a fund for insurance and did everything ourselves

Regards Mark

can you opt out?

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
can you opt out?

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Don't get me started. I have to pay £500 per year for property management which covers grass cutting of common land then hedges android sweeping as its a private road. There is 33 houses on the estate. Someone is making money somewhere.