Affordable Housing

[JennyCharles]

My boyfriend and I bought a property through Circle Anglia on a part buy part rent basis. When working out whether we could afford it we were told by them (in an interview to determine whether we could afford it) that the service charge would be no more than £75 per month. In the first year they only charged us £10 per month, in the second year they told us they had made an error and charged us £200 per month, this year they have said they made another error and want to charge us £350 per month.

We feel that we have been misold this property as if we had known the service charge was going to be so high we would never have bought it as we would have known it was not 'affordable'.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[ummmm]

£350 a month service charge? What service?

[bednobs]

Christ!Have you got a swimming pool/sauna complex? Acre's of grass that need cutting? Do you have a butler? do you have a concierge?
£350 a month is 10 times what i paid in my flat!

[zzxxee]

for a service charge !!!!!!omg go and see your local council they have people to advise about rented accomadation terms and conditions ect

[ummmm]

Hurry up....I'm curious...

[JennyCharles]

I am in a block of about 200 flats, there is no grass to cut, swimming pool, sauna ... even have to pay extra for a car parking space. There is however a concierge.

I really need some legal advice, spoke to the council but it isn't technically rented as we own part of it.

Anyone know legally where we stand?

[redcrx]

£350 for just the service charge?
this should cover buildings insurance, have there been any claims?
it covers major building work too, has there been any?

what does the lease say about service charges

[JennyCharles]

I will dig out the lease later and have a good read through it. You are probably right that it includes building insurance but as it is a recently converted building there have not been any major works done whatsoever

[ummmm]

So on top of the £350 you have to pay a mortgage and rent?

[redcrx]

well i lived in a small block of 5 flats and we paid £50 a month and that was considered high!

check the lease and also see who controls the management and where the fees are going

[bednobs]

blimey - that's nearly a million quid for all the flats in a year.
Do the management company have accounts?
i think the problem you will have is twofold
1) you only had verbal assurances about the service charge
2) even if they said "it's £75" there is no guaruntee it'll be 75 quid forevrt

[JennyCharles]

Yes on top of the service charge we have to pay rent and mortgage which in total costs us around £1100 per month ... all my salary!!!
I am sure that somewhere I have the figures that they wrote down for us and whilst I appreciate that it was only an estimate, for it to go up that much makes the term 'affordable housing' a bit of an anomaly. As I said previously had they estimated it at £350 we wouldn't of bought it as we can't afford it.

[bednobs]

i think the only thing you can do is to sell to be honest

[JennyCharles]

We can only sell it as affordable housing, on a part buy part rent basis, and it's been on the market for 6 months but no one wants to buy it as it simply is not affordable!!! Catch 22.

[bednobs]

have you looked at the annual accounts of the management company? is their spending justified? What do the other owners think?
I don't know if it will be possible but when i lived in a flat, i got myself elected onto the residents association and got our management company changed because they were crap

[redcrx]

i cant imagine that out of 200 flats youre the only ones who are struggling to pay this amount.

when is the next residents meeting?

[bushbaby_de]

We only pay £130 a month for a private development with lots of landscaping etc. When you bought the flat one of the documents your solicitor should have sent you was the estimated expenditure and service charge. You then receive one of these each year. I suggest you have a good look through them to see where this is coming from.

[JennyCharles]

I rang the company who are most unhelpful and said someone will ring me back within 10 days!!! I have written them a letter asking for a full breakdown of the charges and an explanation as to why it is so different to their original 'estimate'.
If I don't get any joy I will get our local MP involved. Don't know what else I can do.