Any experience of privately maintained estates?

[vhm672]

Originally Posted by CarolynU

I think what puzzles me though is why if they are so highly regulated so many (literally thousands) of people in the UK with numerous companies are all having identical or similar problems? There are petitions currently in place, MP’s involved and debates in parliament as well as investigations by the BBC.
That must surely mean that to date the regulations which companies are supposed to abide by are somewhat ineffective. Are they legal requirements so that by not abiding by them companies are breaking the law?
As it stands from my reading on the subject people who have tried to challenge them through the channels available have had very limited success.
Something must be wrong somewhere?

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The debates in parliament and the law commission consultation on changes relate to leasehold as a concept and its use or misuse by certain parties they don't relate to service charge per se.

On service charge some of the things people see as issues are down to a misunderstanding of what they signed up to. For example thinking that the charges won't rise as the items to be maintained get older or not reading what the charges can cover.

It should also be remembered that it is highly regulated but in a civil sense not criminal. The police are not involved and residents would need to step up and enforce the terms of their contractual agreements.

[CarolynU]

Originally Posted by vhm672

The debates in parliament and the law commission consultation on changes relate to leasehold as a concept and its use or misuse by certain parties they don't relate to service charge per se.

On service charge some of the things people see as issues are down to a misunderstanding of what they signed up to. For example thinking that the charges won't rise as the items to be maintained get older or not reading what the charges can cover.

It should also be remembered that it is highly regulated but in a civil sense not criminal. The police are not involved and residents would need to step up and enforce the terms of their contractual agreements.

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Yes I agree that people might not understand the financial implications of increase in service charges as things deteriorate and that will be a factor in the amount of disatisfaction.
However, if all companies were honourable and the regulations worked there would not be the scale of problems that there seems to be.
It also seems to be difficult for residents to challenge issues or the companies make it more difficult than it should be.
Like any issue it involves uniting people on a development to challenge things many of whom might be already extremely busy or others who just simply don’t understand where to turn.
I still believe that if the regulations worked and companies were not using the current legislation to enable them to make money by various means there would be no need for this situation to now be taken up by action groups and MP’s.
I also feel that in some not all cases the developers are less than upfront about service charges when people are buying their properties. I’ve read of so many folks who have put deposits down on houses with absolutely no clue that there are service charges and by the time this is found by their solicitors if they don’t continue with the sale they lose their deposits.
Or the first time the purchaser finds out about the charges is when they get a bill and they have no idea what it’s for.
Whatever is happening there seems to be widespread misunderstanding.

[Procrastinator]

I would never buy anything with a service charge / leasehold / any compulsary charge. Too many people who will do anything to rip you off.

The easy way to solve the issue would be to ban future residential property sales if it is on an unadopted road. That way developers just have to do what is required to get it adopted and the council have it after that. Problem solved. Well, for future properties at least.