Category: HorNet Battles

A resident from the Midlands writes:

We are a group of 6 Freehold homeowners on a larger estate who are trapped and forced into paying variable rentcharges. We are solely responsible for our little area in our TP1. 

When many of us purchased our homes the risk was hidden from us and we weren’t informed. 

We have disputed these charges for years and the company have never provided evidence of costs, evidence of works and yet the invoices continue to roll in with no supporting information. The road was adopted in 2011 – how is it possible for our invoices to increase to this extent without some form of evidence!

We argued constantly that something was wrong until a friend of an owner audited the accounts themselves and found significant anomalies. When we highlighted those anomalies, we are brushed off with generic, unsupported claims. 

The last 3 years invoices now being over £1000 each and the company ignore any attempts to investigate and fix. Our presumption is that the problem has become so big and gone on for so long, no one wants to admit or help us fix it. 

I have included our very first budgets we have on record and one of our most recent, alongside the area we pay for. There are very obvious concerns and something is fundamentally wrong when invoices reach this amount. This pattern has gone on for years.  

People might look at this invoice and think, surely there is more to it. But no, there’s not. You might question why are they paying for Buildings Insurance? We did too and were told “oh it’s just the accounts”, but this is all we get. All the questions Hornet readers might be asking themselves looking at these, we have asked them all. 

Yes, we urgently need the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 and the upcoming Commonhold Act 2026, but today we have absolutely zero protections. They could invoice us for tens of thousands tomorrow due to a mistake and there would be nothing we could do about it. 

HorNets would say you need more than the limited regulation and redress measures in the LAFRA. STOP THE ROT – ADOPT THE LOT!

Only a truly gutsy and determined person is able push on with the fight – we applaud and support her. At least 10 years is the answer, and it’s not over yet! None of this would have been necessary if the estate had been adopted in the first place.

Ten years on read Louise’s story here or by clicking on the photo. It is significant that there were leasehold houses on this development which when residents like Louise purchased their freehold, they were “out of the frying pan into the fire” and were just at the start of their problems over estate charges.

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.