As per the above – I would want to know exactly what the service charge covers and in particular would want to know what aspects of the sewerage and roads are to be adopted. I would be quite surprised if foul sewerage is not to be adopted but surface water drainage can slightly more often be left for private maintenance – especially if it includes ‘sustainable drainage’ elements such as swales, soakaweays etc that water companies often won’t take on. I wouldn’t want to have unadopted access roads.

You should be able to get an idea about highways from the planning authority. It might even be confirmed somewhere in the planning correspondence for the scheme which will be available on the council’s planning website. Look for the highway authority response.

They want you to get a solicitor because it cists you cash you are less likely to back out at that point, a solicitor will no doubt tell you it is standard so you are less likely to be spooked by a odd clause.A solicitor will also want the transaction to go through so will be unlikely to advise a poor clause as opposed to an actively bad one and a solicors insurance will take the hit for any foul up.
Personally I would be very sceptical. Bare in mind when you come to sell on your future purchaser may be someone like me .

As above, don’t just walk away but run away.

Alarm bells should be going off at this point, what scummy sales tactics

As above, don’t brush this off as being okay. We were in a flat on an unadopted road, and the fee was at first £250/yr. Don’t have figures to hand but it was much more by the time we left (only 4 yrs later) and they were trying to force through uber expensive repairs to the woefully designed cycle storage and parking at our expense also.

It also caused us serious arse ache when we tried to sell up.

They really are bumholes and I would never buy new build again.

Definitely ask to see any documents. These are meant to inventory what they plan to do with your money.

The development we’re on has a £100/year charge for groundwork. We moved in 18 months ago & so far we haven’t received a single bill for this. Our neighbours, who didn’t buy their house off the site developers, had incredible problems getting information from the management company via the vendor’s solicitors. Our docs make no mention of possible changes in charges, yet.

New build purchase here. It’s for maintenance of all non adopted private areas communal spaces playing fields play parks etc.
Ours also has a quarry face that may need maintenance. Ours is a capped scheme. We pay approx 300pa. Well worth it for where I get to live…

Oh and ours is freehold and our individual property is calculated and the cost apportion shown to us in a breakdown and paid 6 monthly

Capped for how long though? £300 won’t go far in twenty years time for example.

Genuine question; if you want to live in a nicely landscaped estate with play areas etc, who do you think should pay for the upkeep and maintenance – the local council? I know of many horror stories of this type of work being passed over in the priority list.

I guess I see it not much different to what happens in communal stairwells. Maybe that’s an Edinburgh/Scotland thing though.

OK bit more clarity after I went down there and spoke in person.

There are no real ‘landscaped areas’ to maintain – no parks, play areas etc, it’s all housing and peoples gardens. There’s a bit of old woodland out the back – but most of this seems to be for the roads, pavements, lights, parking, sewerage, pumping stations etc. The council aren’t going to be taking any of it on. It’s all under the managing agent.

We’d essentially be financially responsible for everything on the development. Also the fee is just an initial estimate at the moment, it could go up after the site is complete.

Wow. Considering many buyers man not be so inquisitive that is a stitch up and a half

I’d be tempted to write back stating without this information you will not be proceeding further. They will not want to lose a sale

Developers probably won’t give a toss. People buy new-builds like STW forum members buy T5’s.

We’d essentially be financially responsible for everything on the development. Also the fee is just an initial estimate at the moment, it could go up after the site is complete.

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Also the fee is just an initial estimate at the moment, it could go up after the site is complete.

Also known as a licence to print money from a captive audience! I don’t see any incentive there for the landowner to control costs…

Harry Enfield has it right “I saw you coming…”

We badly need to change our attitude to property – we justify overspending on it to a massive amount for some insane reason, and then wonder how we’ve ended up in debt crisis… and public services are massively underfunded cos there’s not enough taxpayer cash to pay for them

Interesting Dan. Our factor charges us £351 a quarter for the gardening services. All they do is mow a couple of small areas of grass and there are a couple of small areas of soil with plants but they’re non-flowering and haven’t grown much so I haven’t seen any noticeable work done on them in 10 years.

It’s an absolute **** scam

There’s a bit of old woodland out the back – but most of this seems to be for the roads, pavements, lights, parking, sewerage, pumping stations etc. The council aren’t going to be taking any of it on. It’s all under the managing agent.

Not a chance I’d be buying a property if I could be liable for the repair of that lot! Some expensive infrastructure there.

People buy new-builds like STW forum members buy T5’s.

nice work. 🙂

I would echo others –
– you have no control over these fees
– you have no choice but to pay them
– the fees will only go up
– this will make the house more difficult to sell in the future

That said –
– will the road and street lights be adopted by the council? That could be a considerable expense. I think that so long as the infrastructure is built to standard they will take it on. And if it’s not to a good standard … how long will it last?
– if you are paying for part of the water infrastructure – will you see any reduction in your water bill?

We found another development in the next village along. Same house, same builders, different plot. This one also has a managing agent – but the main differences are the road is planned to be adopted by the council and there are no pumping stations (just a single sub station).

So from what I can tell the annual fee will only be for maintaining the communal green areas, as there is a park in the development, and a few shared brick weaved drives.

Am I silly for considering this, or should I walk away?

I’d still be very wary of anything with a managing agent… it’s still open to abuse and ever-increasing costs. And how ‘planned’ is the adoption by the council – a salesperson’s invention to get you to buy or a firm commitment by the council…
Are older houses on adopted estates really not an option?

The Scottish Government operate a property factor register which all factors are obliged to be on. No registration = no business. There is a fit and proper test and they have to provide an annual return listing the properties they factor. My first port of call would be to check that the mgt company are registered and then if you feel you are being treated unfairly make a complaint. If they aren’t on the register then they can be fined.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/housing/repairs-and-improvements-s/property-factors-providing-services-to-homeowners-s/

Do you really own your home? Not if you’re a leaseholder

A good summary of the rip-offs going on with new build/leasehold

Financial times

If the link doesn’t work – cut and paste the first line of my post into your browser

Land Registry numbers tell us that thousands of houses are now being sold on long leaseholds as well.

If you are one of the buyers of one of those houses, perhaps one who spent years saving enough a deposit to move out of the rental market, I wonder if you are what you think you are. You see, you aren’t actually a homeowner. You are still a tenant. You have the right to occupy the property for 99 years, 125 years or perhaps even 999 years. But the building itself and — crucially — the land on which it sits, remain the property of the freeholder.

But think about the ground rent and you will a clue as to why developers are so keen on leaseholds — and why some have even been selling perfectly ordinary three-bed newbuild houses (rather than flats) on absurd 999 year leaseholds instead of freeholds (although salesmen like to call them “virtual freeholds”). As buying agent Henry Pryor points out, there is “no genuine reason” for this.

Greenbelt? If so, be very careful…those that don’t pay cause issues which then affect the whole estate i.e. no work done.
The seller will tell you virtually nothing about the annual charge and what it covers, they should mention the charge, but when pressed you’ll get very little detail.

You don’t need to pay but the agent will come after you. After a long and stressful period of time, if they don’t make money they will stop servicing the estate. If the council hasn’t adopted the road and green space then the agent owns these and can fence them off (local to me has a kids park fenced off and up for sale…cheap!).

in tattier parts of SE London even a small 2-bed terrace house is now £500k+
Median London income is c£35k…

Other parts of the country are available in which to live.

a kids park fenced off and up for sale…cheap!

Buy it then.

I’m tempted…the area of land would be a superb chunk of land for a house…would need to get planning permission to build a house, but it is tempting.
Except, the land is owned by the agent and they are selling it to get back at a number of residents who didn’t pay the factor fees as the factors (agent) wasn’t doing their work…went to court, unearthed a huge amount of other disgruntled areas with similar issues and the agent lost the case…so they have now withdrawn any work and are looking to sell off the land…
Factoring fees are a royal pita.