Around 2020, a few of us on our estate became more active in dealing with our Property Management Company and the Developer following an increase in our service charges.
With the backing of all residents (there are only 22 properties) we formed a committee of three and had meetings with the property management company, but after a number of mis-management issues, we contacted the Developer to ask if we could leave the PMC they had appointed.
The Developer agreed to this and also let us appoint our own Directors (of which I am one of two) to the Resident Management Company even though the managed land had yet to be handed over. They retain one Director position but basically leave us to manage things direct with the new PMC that we picked who are local to our estate.
There was a £360 setting up fee with the new PMC which we persuaded the Developer to pay, but there was also a £360 “cancellation” fee charged by the old PMC which we weren’t made aware of until we received the final balance. I understand these charges are pretty standard, so if anyone is lucky enough to change PMC, they will be charged £720 for the pleasure in doing so!
This all took place in 2024 and we are now 18 months into this new arrangement. As Directors we can now choose local contractors ourselves, set budgets, agree accounts etc. This does take work (unpaid) admittedly and our new PMC have made mistakes but as we are so close to everything, we can sort these out quickly. Things are far from ideal, we pay a huge fee (£2400pa) to the PMC and our Service Charges pay for the upkeep of a playground which anyone in the village or anywhere else for that matter, can use. After 13 years, our road remains unadopted but when a fence needed replacing recently, we managed to get the Developer to pay the cost.
I believe our situation was only possible because of the small size of our Estate and so liaison with neighbours has been easy and we have been very single-minded in our contacts with the Developer having the direct emails and mobile phone numbers of the people who deal with the RMC and Estate adoption.
These charges are still very wrong and we feel strongly about paying for a playground that anyone can use when we also pay council tax but having wrenched control from the Developer and their original PMC at least we have more control over how our money is spent.
