Do You Live In A Redrow Homes Built Property?
Filed in Uncategorized on Dec.18, 2009
We’ve been contacted by a contributor to TheTruthAboutSolitaire, who is looking to get in contact with other people that live on developments / in properties that have been built by Redrow and are also experiencing problems with their Property Managing Agent – whether it is Solitaire / Peverel or another of the Consensus Business Group companies.
If you do, please add a comment below advising that you are happy for us to forward your e-mail address on to the contributor in question, for them to contact you directly.
December 18th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Yes I do.
I bought my flat brand new , in isle of dog, a prestigious development right on the river Thames, which I am having problems with.
My lease is defective, which is not protecting me while Peverel have unfair advantage over me.
Read Nicky Vogg story, sad pathetic , which is no one believes even if I try to explain to the outside world and end up getting funny looks or put downs.
In my opinion Redrow created the lease and appointed Peverel as their sole management Company in the lease, therefore, indirectly are responsible for my plight, along with the council for approving it.
December 20th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
We own an “over the arch” apartment on the Redrow Sexton’s Meadow development at Bury St Edmunds. I am happy to have my e-mail passed on to the contributor. Solitaire ‘manage’ the property and I am absolutely fed up with them. As the property is not in a block, there seems no possibility of setting up a Right to Manage company.I would be very interested to hear if anyone has managed to get rid of Solitaire when they are in a similar situation.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
We have just received our first invoices from Solitaire, and I’m in the process of contacting other residents to form an action group. One of the charges asks for a management fee for the plots of £80pp, and another management fee for the garage of £80pg. This has been challenged.
The range of cst items are.
Third party insurance,Public liability Insurance,External light biulbs/electricity,maintenance of landscaped areas, General repairs,Management fee,Risk assessment,Accessway renewal reserve,
It’s a licence to print money.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:41 am
J Clarkson
I too own an “over the arch” apartment on the same Redrow estate in Bury St Edmunds. I am also investigating the possibility of obtaining “Right to Manage”. I know someone who says he has bought the Freehold on a similar property from Solitaire.
It might be a good idea if we had a chat. How can I contact you?
December 29th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Where is Bury St Edmunds ?
You can get some information on “right to manage” from the Hastings based SELCHA ( http://www.selcha.com ). The man running selcha exposed a buildings insurance scam where 159K was charged on the leaseholders but the actual insurance premium was only 29K.The intermediaries took a huge cut.
You can download free publication on RTM from http://www.lease-advice.org
December 29th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Please could the administrators arrange for my e-mail to be passed to Paul Fletcher following the “Do you live on a Redrow Homes built property”.
Many thanks
December 30th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Bruce, the problem with the type of property that I have (and Paul also) is that it is NOT in a block and so does not satisfy the criteria of there being at least 2 flats in the block that the right to manage seems to require. There are no common areas or grounds to be maintained. That is why I would love some advice from someone who has solved a similar problem. I think the best route is probably to try to buy the freehold.
A quick internet search will show you Bury St Edmunds. It is a beautiful town in Suffolk.Well worth a visit!
December 30th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Jan-
The land registry record for your flat? can only be freehold title or leasehold title . Go to Land Registry Online and buy a copy of the title for your property ( 3 or 4 pds ) and see what title you have .
If yours is leasehold , then check adjacent properties for their titles.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Bruce, no need to do this as it is leasehold. I have all the land registry details. The adjacent properties are conventional houses. On one side the house is freehold and on the other the house is freehold but the garage, which is underneath our property is freehold. An archway under our flat leads to our parking and 4 spaces for the houses.There are probably about 20 such properties, some 1 bed like ours and others 2 bed on the estate. They have their own front door and internal stairs leading up to the flat, which has a conventional roof and a loft.
This is the problem that I have. We are charged management fees but all Solitaire do is provide insurance (which costs more than for our 4 bedroomed Victorian house with £50,000 of contents) and arrange for exterior painting to be done , whether I want it or not, at what seems to be a very high cost. We have never seen a specification for the painting contract. We have no common areas or grounds to maintain, only a parking space.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Sorry, my mistake. I should have said that the garage under the flat belonging to the adjacent house is LEASEHOLD.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Jan, you are saying that your leasehold flat is sitting on top of freehold garage. So your service charge account just covers the garage below and your leasehold flat ?. Have you asked for a summary of the building insurance cover and asked about the method of apportionment ?
1. You can get a summary of building insurance cover by serving a written request (By recorded delivery) and get a reply within 30 days.( it becomes a criminal offence which can be reported at the Magistrates Court)
2. Contact Mr Rochford of SELCHA ( http://www.selcha.com) and ask him if you can apply RTM on one flat to get rid of Peveral.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Hi Jan,
Yes, we share exactly the same problem. There has to be a way out of Solitaire hell. We must work together on this. Here’s an email address I’ve just created for you: nevillefletcher77@googlemail.com.
Please make contact. Paul
January 4th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
We live in a very similar property, except our apartment is built above 3 leasehold garages. Like you, we also have a seperate front door and internal staircase. Our building adjoins the neighbouring apartment block, which is also leasehold. We contribute a pro-rata service charge, reflecting that we don’t use any of the shared areas within the apartment block.
After many years of grief with Solitaire we clubbed together with the leaseholders in the neighbouring apartment block to pursue RTM proceedings against Solitaire. Despite the legal differences in your situation, you should still be able to do the same.
I note your apartment is on top a freehold garage, most likely making your lease a ‘floating lease’. (Meaning your property is adjacent to or overhangs, abuts or shares part of its structure with a neighbouring freehold property.) This can make some of the legal aspects a little trickier, but nonetheless Right To Manage should still be achievable.
By the sounds of it, based on the layout of your site (shared parking area), it sounds likely that there is some kind of management contract in place with Solitaire to which the freeholders are also required to contribute.
(You’ll find many freeholders who contribute here in the same situation. Areas such as shared carparks are not part of the public highway, therefore not maintained by the local council and the land is still the responsibility of the developer. The developer will appoint a property manager to look after such shared areas; the property manager will then bill all adjacent properties with access to these areas, even the freehold ones.)
So in short – speak to your neighbours, even if they have a freehold. You’ll probably find their ‘freehold’ deeds include a clause to pay service charges towards the shared areas too. So despite the fact you are not in a living in a ‘block’ of properties, if you and the neighbouring freeholders are charged as a ‘block’ you should be able to club together in the same we have to pursue RTM. You’ll need more than 50% of those that pay towards the maintenance of the shared areas to agree before you can issue RTM proceedings.
Your freehold neighbours will probably thank you for instigating RTM too. Once in control, you can significantly drive down your costs. Particularly if there are no large shared gardens to maintain and insure, just a strip of tarmac.
Jon
January 15th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Having just gone through the RTM process, we discovered that freehold houses cannot join the RTM process.
The main criteria is a for a “continuous block”. There are loads of solicitors getting involved in RTM work as it grows in popularity. Have a chat with a firm local to you and describe your block. They will tell you whether your building qualifies.
I know of one develpoment managed by Peverel/Solitaire which is 11 sepearate blocks – all leasehold. That means 11 rtm cos would need to be set up. Good luck
January 27th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I have a freehold townhouse property but a leasehold garage that is under a coach house and I have a Peverel service charge. Our development (in Cardiff) has a large square and park that Peverel DO NOT maintain and all the properties with freehold and garage built in pay no service charges (one whole side of the square) whilst those with leasehold garages pay a charge like the flats and apartments. They also do not clean the only communal area I use anyway (an alley at the rear of my property that serves four houses like mine) and I fail to see any justification for the charges…
January 27th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Answer to William: annoying as it is it sounds like you might be stuck with the charges.
I owned a Redrow house that was freehold – but we paid a service charge just for the privilege of using the only means of getting to it: the access road.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
i have just bought a rerow home in plymouth we are charged a little under £500 per year for maintaince this is a fairly new site, the front of the house looks onto a building site, the paths are not fully tarmaced yet or the roads, we havent had our windows washed yet and when i asked about this they said that they only wash the front of the house??? there is no comunial areas, they told us when we bought the property that there was going to be electric gates and when we eventually took posession of the keys and we moved in , there were no electric gates when questioned about this “oh well we are’nt doing that now” and we are paying maintance on this, then i got wind of the maintance company sending letters out saying that they are no longer dealing with the buildings insurance, so again we questioned Redrow and they said that we were all sent letters to notife us about this ,but we havent had any letters of any kind and from what i have been told is, that the insurance stops on the 31st January in 2 days time what on earth is going on.
so what can i do, we bpought in july 09 i’m still haveing remedial works getting done the house (leaking showers,toilets and walls not plastered properly front door not securing properly etc…)
i am a first time buyer so i am very new to all this, i am very worried please help
January 29th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Spencer – sounds like you are not getting what was indicated to you at the time of purchase. It might cost you a bit of money, but talk with your conveyancing solicitor for their advise / assistance. Also talk to your neighbours to see what they were expecting when they were buying their properties. If you haven’t already done so, get a group of you together to fight your cause – a group from numerous properties with the same issues will (hopefully) get better results than one individual.
If the development was advertised as having electric gates but now isn’t, demand an explanation as to why this item has been omitted. And if such a material change has been made to the development, does this have an impact on the Planning Permission for the development…??? Demand a rebate on your maintenance fees if you are paying towards the upkeep of electric gates that don’t exist (not the first time we’ve heard about such an issue on this website).
If the site is not yet complete, why are you being charged any maintenance / management fees at all…??? I thought these only come into play once a site is completed, and the developer (Redrow in your case) has formally handed over the development to their chosen management agents…??? Check your lease, or discuss this further with your conveyancing solicitor.
So you are being told that letters regarding the insurance situation were sent out, but presumably nobody on your development have received these letters? Have you demanded copies of the letters…??? What reason have you been given for the insurance cover ending on 31st January…???
Regarding the “snagging” problems you have inside your own property, if these aren’t being rectified quickly enough (or to your satisfaction), then contact the NHBC (or whoever your building warranty is with – you must have one, provided by Redrow when the house was first built) and get them to kick some backsides. Or contact ITV to see if they are doing a “Homes From Hell 2010″ programme….. Are there similar problems in other occupied units on the development…???
Not what any property owner needs, and especially a first-time-buyer such as yourself. Get together with your neighbours (if they are similarly worried), talk to a conveyancing solicitor, and basically make a bl00dy nuisance of yourselves (within the law, of course…) until you get some answers.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:44 am
I’m fed up with redrow and the property management company! I live on a development in Lincoln and have done so for 2years now. Basically I am still living on a building site, have not seen a gardner nor window cleaner once, getting woken by drilling, reversing trucks etc at all hours. Basicly I could go on all day, but as typing on an iPhone I won’t!! I would love someone to get in touch as I’m at my witts end!!!
Cheers
matt
February 4th, 2010 at 9:47 am
So, another comment from a Redrow development. Again, as with Spencer’s case above, I have to wonder why a management company is even involved with such a development, if it is still not completed (which I assume is the case for both Matt Tullos & Spencer).
Without wishing to defend management companies, how can they be expected to properly manage (and maintain) a development, if the developer hasn’t actually finished the building work on the site as a whole…??? Who is responsible for what…???
Matt Tullos – who specifically is your management company???
Also, if you are being disturbed by building activities at anti-social hours, I suggest you obtain a copy of the Planning Permission for your development (if you haven’t already got one), which may well include a condition defining specific times when general site works, deliveries etc. can take place (and conversely, when they can’t take place). For example, they might only be allowed to work until 12 noon on Saturdays, and not at all on Sundays.
If you then discover that they are operating outside of the prescribed times (and are therefore in breach of the Planning condition), have a word with the Site Foreman / Project Manager, or otherwise contact your local Planning Department and lodge a complaint.
The excuse might be that they’re trying to get the site finished ASAP, but this is not an acceptable reason for breaching a Planning condition. If they want extended hours, they have to apply for a variation or discharge of the relevant Planning condition, which I suspect they wouldn’t get approved…..