Property Management / Grounds Fees. Do you pay them?

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moved into a housing development recently. it's around 5 years old.
there are fees of around £100pa to a property management company for grounds maintenance, public liability insurance, property management fees etc
now this was a surprise to me and most people in the development. it was never mentioned by the estate agent until after the sale. when home owners questioned it there was no debate, it must be paid or face legal action.
it's all a bit of a joke, paying for a few square meters of grass to be cut several times a year
how common are these fees now?
i've always know about them within apartment and flat complexes where there would be maintenance of common areas but housing developments... these are not huge houses, 3 bedroom. we're not people with a lot of money to hand over on top of paying a mortgage.
anyone else got stung with this?
 

twentysix by twentyfive

Clinging on tightly
Location
Over the Hill
Didn't your solicitor discover this when the searches were done?
 
OP
OP
NorthernSky
sorry it was picked up by solicitor but no-one knew what the fees would be. 3 years were free until a management company was found.
was all a bit seedy.
really looking to gauge how common this is now. it just seems like an absolutely wonderful idea by some property developers to make a small fortune for doing pretty much nothing
 

alicat

Legendary Member
Location
Staffs
Be careful what you wish for.

I'd rather pay £100 pa than have tatty common parts and overgrown grounds that could make it unpleasant to come home to and almost impossible to sell your home when the time comes.

If you don't like it, get together with the others to form a tenant management company and see if you can buy the services cheaper. And then wait for everyone to whinge at you not the managing agents.
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
Can the residents form a management committee and do the work cheaper? But this involves admin. I know my parents house has a residents run management committee, they all have to vote at AGMs and getting certain residents to cough up is an annual issue.
£100 sounds reasonable to do away with the general admin issues and headaches.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
£100 a year sounds very little. It’s often that per month or much more if there are leisure facilities, lifts in blocks etc

I assume they are providing transparent records of exactly how the money is being spent, how much there is in the sink fund etc should something need fixing urgently (like drains, fallen trees on common parts)

Costs me rather more than that a year to maintain my small freehold garden (as I can’t do much of it myself)
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
The 'spare' bits of land were sort of allocated to various neighbours. That said I am the only one that keeps the land around 3 parking spaces near our house maintained. The bit over the road is supposed to be looked after by my favourite neighbour, but isnt, and forget about the other 3 parking spaces at the other end, almost unusable now.
 

pjd57

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
I pay them. Fairly standard in Scotland.
Usually tied into them for a fixed period after the houses are built.
Then a majority can decide to ditch them, but when that happens the result is usually an overgrown wasteland within a year .
Paying them isn't great.
Not paying can be worse.
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
I find it totally crazy that a solicitor would let you sign a contract without management fees being known up front, or at least making you very aware that they would exist and you may not have control over them.
 
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Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
I find it totally crazy that a solicitor would let you sign a contract without management fees being known up front, or at least making you very aware that they would exist and you may not have control over them.
There was a case a couple of years ago where the contract stated the ground rent fee would double every 5 years. It meant that due to the wonders of compound interest the ground rent started at £100, but after 50 years it was over £50k pa.
The solicitors simply hadn’t flagged it up. It made the house unsellable because no one would sign up to that.
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
It's standard stuff on all leasehold properties with shared facilities, gardens, common parts etc. It is also used to cover things like general upkeep, painting, guttering and roofing if you live in a flat or maisonette. You need to aware of the fees and any future increases.
The work needs to be done and it's probably better a maintenance company does it than you sort it out with the other tenants, there's always one or two who won't play ball.
 
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