Apologies for the length of this. Anyone run a gardening firm on here? Just after some info really on costs.
We have just received our service charges for the next year for our leasehold flat (UK, not Scotland) and our gardening costs alone have risen from £1100(ish) to £1500 per annum (divided by 18 flats) - so a 36% increase!
The previous gardening company quit midway through last year - so nothing was done in the garden between September and now (no leaf collection etc), and now our freeholders handyman has taken over the gardening - he reckons because they have cut his hours due to the recession, they are now going to pay him £60 per day (so £1500 works out at 25 days per year) to do the garden. Previously, we had very basic stuff done, bushes pruned a little (and badly), lawns mowed, leaves swept and removed in the autumn, and thats about it. SO far, we have had the lawn mowed twice since the start of spring (about right) and some bushes hacked at very badly.
Now, does £1500 per annum sound reasonable? for providing a very basic (and bad) service (mowing, some basic pruning etc in the London area - any flower beds etc have been created and maintained by the residents) - garden isnt big at all - highlighted in blue in this link:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3310/3487890079_af0011f2d3_o.jpg
sorry, no scale, but the silver car at the front is a 5 series BMW and the other red one, white roof is a mini - so you can see its not big, and is mostly lawn
Would be interested to know what any folk in the business think.
Personally, I think we are paying top whack for what we get from someone who doesnt have a clue about what he is doing (nice as the guy is, he is about the bluntest tool you could possibly imagine and it is quite obvious he doesnt know what he is doing - oh and it would be good if he stayed longer than 2 hours per visit - £60 per day to me means he gets £60 for working a full blinkin' day) and the freeholder is taking the proverbial. I feel a LVT coming on...but first I need some info.
