Property Maintenance Charges:How much are you out of pocket?

[jock]

Hi All

I currently live in a block of flats in Hampshire-Leasehold- 1xbedroom, very small simple garden.

At the momment I am charged £660 per year by our management company for property maintenance. They are proposing to increase this to £805.

Ive tried to find info about what is "normal" for this area but have been unsuccessful. Seems to be hush hush.

What is the going rate?

It would be interesting ti hear what others are being charged!

Cheers

[Angua]

Hi All

I currently live in a block of flats in Hampshire-Leasehold- 1xbedroom, very small simple garden.

At the momment I am charged £660 per year by our management company for property maintenance. They are proposing to increase this to £805.

Ive tried to find info about what is "normal" for this area but have been unsuccessful. Seems to be hush hush.

What is the going rate?

It would be interesting ti hear what others are being charged!

Cheers

Try asking your local housing assocaition as they may have similar properties with the same requirements. Locally we have a group of 18 houses which have a communal parking/frontage area and they were charging around £250 PA a couple of years ago for maintainance of the shared area.

[SMHarman]

Your management company should produce accounts and details of their planned expenditure upon request.
What does this cover? Building insurance, window cleaning, garden maintainance, external building maintaince, common areas cleaning, lighting etc?

[MovedGoalPosts]

There is no "average" for this. It's not the size of block, although smaller can be more costly due to lack of economies of scale (still need someone to check the books, place orders, look after things so admin is higher in proportion to the number of units). Layout has an effect (more staircases and communal areas will need more cleaning, gardening, etc). Age - older usually is more costly to maintain. Lifts, entrance gates, entry systems all need maintenance contracts, and so on. In fact to me the proposed amount sounds not unreasonable, even though it is quite an increase.

Of course you can, ask the managing agents to confirm contracts for cleaning and the like have been recently tendered (costs could go up as well as down). Equally what are the charges of the managing agent? Do you as residents own the freehold and thus can choose your agent (or even do in house if you have someone prepared to take it on), or is the landlord a third party. If the latter, think about enfranchisement processes, if you beleive it is all a bit expensive: www.leaseadvice.org.uk

[jock]

Thanks all for your replies!

Ill do a wee bit of local research.

Cheers

Jock

[Graham]

At the momment I am charged £660 per year by our management company for property maintenance. They are proposing to increase this to £805.

Unfortunately "management charges" are very much at the whim of the freeholders. What you can do is have a look at the accounts and see if what you're being charged actually reflects what work is being done on the property.

It may well also be possible for you to join together with the other leaseholders to buy the freehold out. This will mean that you, jointly, will be responsible for maintaining the building, but at least you'll know nobody's just making a profit out of you.

[Charlie_Bubble]

My building has management charges around £600 to £650 a year.

[greencreeper]

Lie. Go flat hunting - pretend that you're looking to move to the area. Can ask all the questions you like - a desperate salesmen is like putty in your hands :D