Hi, I’m Russell and have lived at number 43 since 2007 with my wife, Emma and 2 children. I am a chartered surveyor working in the retail sector and my wife works in fashion.
Unfortunately I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the landlord does have the right to implement a service charge. When you bought your homes you will have signed a legal document called a TR1 form which transferred the title of your house to the purchaser. If you review this document Howarth have reserved the right to implement a service charge and therefore we are liable to pay. The revised figure of c.£370 doesn’t seem out of kilter given the size of the estate but my concern is that Howarth are not spreading the charge equally across all the properties. They agreed a service charge waiver with the Housing Association which means that those properties don’t pay the service charge.
The service charge is currently split between 31 houses whilst there are 43 dwellings on the estate. Under my TP1 document Howarth don’t have the right to do this as it states that the charge should be split equally between all the dwellings and I have challenged Red Rock on this point and suggested that Howarth have to pick up the shortfall and I am awaiting a response.
I’ll let you know if they deem to respond.