I got out of having a leasehold a few years ago as I could not get any sense out of the management company. Always dodging questions not doing any work or maintenance no invoices for payments or companies carrying out work. All scammers. Good luck.
A landlord is a dirty thieving bastard? What a surprise…
I lived in a supposed ‘luxury’ block around 20 years ago. The board who ran it (who didn’t even live in the building) supposedly ran up a surplus of over £200k. In the meantime there was a constantly leaking roof with damp throughout on the top floor. There was a plague of clothes moths that were in the carpets and eventually in everybody’s wardrobes. Walking down the corridors in the morning you could see hundreds of moths clinging to the walls.
There were fights between tenants that went to court. CCTV cameras that were supposed to be for security but the porters got them switched off because they didn’t want to be on camera. The fascia of the building had crumbled away and the windows let in rain. Some of the old bits of fascia would creak and flap around in high winds, keeping people awake. I lived there for nearly 10 years, was glad to leave. Luckily I was only renting. I wouldn’t buy a flat like that.
Scum lord should be reported to the cops and investigated for embezzlement . Money went to a company he is the sole director of .Screams foul play.
I live in a freehold property in a managed estate, we pay ~£50 a month (depends on property size) towards it. Whilst I don’t believe it represents great value for money, they at least keep the estate in a good condition (including a nice outdoor sports court/playground) and is managed by an elected residents association alongside the management company (a “charitable housing association”).
It’s frustrating that it’s contracted to increase with inflation every year despite the pot exceeding any planned/expected expenses.
I think the government needs to ramp up legislation around service fees to make sure residents are getting good value for money and that there is accountability/restitution for when money is used inappropriately.
What sort of regulation covers service charge funds? Surely this is exactly the sort of thing that should be audited, with clear decisions underpinning what they spend the fund on?
Management companies are leaches, and the freeholders that own them don’t give a toss – point in case being all the property’s with cladding issues that haven’t been fixed due to the freeholder dodging the bill and trying to get out of it.
All round scum
We really need to have much tighter rules around people taking money for unspecified “service charges” that require them to be completely transparent about what they do with it and why it’s necessary. At the moment these kind of vague charges are just an excuse to put their hands in other people’s pockets.
We have a leaking roof which is now causing the plaster in the stairway to crumble. The block looks a complete state and one good pull of the front door could break the lock. Last year we had no way of letting anyone into the building as the entry system broke and they could not see why this was dangerous if we needed to allow emergency services access. I pay over £100 a month ‘service’ charge on top of my mortgage each month, for that we get a cursory quick vacuum of the stairs and hallway and a wipe down of the banisters with a dirty, sticky cloth once a week and the odd sporadic rubbish attempt at mowing the grass outside the front entrance. Several weeks ago we lost all power in communal areas and were told it was not an out of hour emergency despite children and elderly people living here.
My friend in the block next door which is owned by another company has just had all the exterior windows in their block cleaned, all exterior brick work pressure washed, gutters and roof cleaned. She pays the same a month in service charge.
Being priced out of freehold properties due to living in a high cost of living area is very frustrating
I had the misfortune of living in a block of flats where the management company was First Port.
I always wondered why I seemed to be the only one reporting issues.
It turns out that everyone was, and the pricks on the phone were not actually logging tickets.
We caught on and made them give us a ticket reference, and you could hear the annoyance in their voice that they had to do their jobs.
Then when they realised that some of the people calling were renters, First Port started saying “no you need to speak to your landlord, they’re our customer”.
Absolute dog shit company
I used to live in a block run by Clarion housing and it’s a total scam. I actually had a very frank conversation with one of their maintenance guys and he was telling me how essentially nothing will ever be done properly and whilst we had big issues in our block I should count myself luckily as another block near ours was getting fucked over. He made it clear that he would never live in such a place due to how they refused to spend money to fix anything properly
My building has had the same – the service charge is going up and up all the time, but the state of the building and grounds is a joke. The front and back communal doors are openly accessible, as is the car park gate. The green areas are overgrown and the grass mostly dead. Fences are broken. Trying to contact the management company is pointless, and it recently took nearly two months to get our broken communal waste bins fixed – two months in which our rubbish just piled up, uncollected.
And we have nowhere to turn to.
In our building, we dropped our management company and did the whole thing ourselves. You just create a company and set directors. Then assigned some responsibilities to each tenant. The trick is that everyone must help out.
> Many of the invoices that did exist were from National Property Services Limited, a company of which Mr Saleem is the sole director.
Jesus – end leasehold tomorrow at no compensation to these vultures
Apologies that this may not help all of you but hopefully it is useful to someone –
1) There are several circumstances in which you can force the freeholder to SELL THE FREEHOLD TO YOU:
I did have a somewhat positive experience as a leaseholder; I bought a share in a single company that I believe was the resisdents, and we had a very decent management company along with an AGM that really did some decent stuff.
There were some frustrating parts; like the fact we might have been able to buy out the lease, and some issues with bins and such like, but on the whole they kept the place running, well lit, tidy and secure with maintained gardens and clean corridors. I paid to have my windows replaced by the company they selected to ensure they were “in-keeping”. They had the main security gate replaced, and we had endless issues with it not working. The service charge was also very high.
The only time I had issues was leaking from “my” bathroom; it was considered my fault until we identified it as an overflow from the top floor, then management company stepped in to resolve at that point. Before then I was out of pocket, as I didn’t have buildings insurance since it was supposed to be covered by them, and the excess was £1000 and they refused to claim as it might impact the premiums.
Colour me shocked that landlords are once again being worthless leeches on society.
Yeah, I’m not saying that Mr. Saleem is doing some naughty dipping into the service charge funds… but what I am saying is that, where you have few invoices and, of those you do have, most of them are not from a competitively priced, at arms length 3rd party, but a company of which you are sole director (and as can be seen on the incorporation and confirmation statements on Companies House, sole shareholder too), it can sure look to be, or can be used as evidence of, some sneaky money skimming activities by poor Mr. Saleem
How effective would setting up a petition for this labour government to review the scandalous lease hold and service charge regulations? And if not effective- why? Curious.
My service charge will be going up soon due to insurance rises. So far, the management company haven’t done anything to cause concern but it’s a constant stress in the back of your mind.
It’s probably gone offshore.
I made an offer on a new property about 12 years ago. They had a service charge of £150 per month for about 10 square feet of flower bed space.
Just pulled out of a flat purchase after finding out the managing agency overspent by £100k last year and burned through the reserve fund. Bullet dodged.
Can’t afford a house and all leaseholds are scams. Broken housing in a broken country
All scammers. The entire business is built on charging over the odds or charging for virtually nothing. Thats with a reputable by the books one, let a lone a dodgy one like in the article who isnt able to explain where the money had gone.
We had a block management company for our building with 3 flats in. They wanted £35000 for external works.
The free holder for the building woke up to this finally after the littany of exorbiant over charges for anything from a letter, to a fire alarm test to god knows what else.
He decided to self manage, and our costs virtually disappeared overnight. We got the same work they quoted 35,000 for, done for 8000. Any of the other charges we used to pay af least halved. Complete sham industry.
3800 service charge to live in that utter shithole, Jesus
Need to confiscate the passport of Samsons’ sole director Mohammed Saleem.
he’s going to do a runner pretty soon
It’s gone into his secret swiss bank account so he can buy a new car with it when nobody is looking.
27 comments
I got out of having a leasehold a few years ago as I could not get any sense out of the management company. Always dodging questions not doing any work or maintenance no invoices for payments or companies carrying out work. All scammers. Good luck.
A landlord is a dirty thieving bastard? What a surprise…
I lived in a supposed ‘luxury’ block around 20 years ago. The board who ran it (who didn’t even live in the building) supposedly ran up a surplus of over £200k. In the meantime there was a constantly leaking roof with damp throughout on the top floor. There was a plague of clothes moths that were in the carpets and eventually in everybody’s wardrobes. Walking down the corridors in the morning you could see hundreds of moths clinging to the walls.
There were fights between tenants that went to court. CCTV cameras that were supposed to be for security but the porters got them switched off because they didn’t want to be on camera. The fascia of the building had crumbled away and the windows let in rain. Some of the old bits of fascia would creak and flap around in high winds, keeping people awake. I lived there for nearly 10 years, was glad to leave. Luckily I was only renting. I wouldn’t buy a flat like that.
Scum lord should be reported to the cops and investigated for embezzlement . Money went to a company he is the sole director of .Screams foul play.
I live in a freehold property in a managed estate, we pay ~£50 a month (depends on property size) towards it. Whilst I don’t believe it represents great value for money, they at least keep the estate in a good condition (including a nice outdoor sports court/playground) and is managed by an elected residents association alongside the management company (a “charitable housing association”).
It’s frustrating that it’s contracted to increase with inflation every year despite the pot exceeding any planned/expected expenses.
I think the government needs to ramp up legislation around service fees to make sure residents are getting good value for money and that there is accountability/restitution for when money is used inappropriately.
What sort of regulation covers service charge funds? Surely this is exactly the sort of thing that should be audited, with clear decisions underpinning what they spend the fund on?
Management companies are leaches, and the freeholders that own them don’t give a toss – point in case being all the property’s with cladding issues that haven’t been fixed due to the freeholder dodging the bill and trying to get out of it.
All round scum
We really need to have much tighter rules around people taking money for unspecified “service charges” that require them to be completely transparent about what they do with it and why it’s necessary. At the moment these kind of vague charges are just an excuse to put their hands in other people’s pockets.
We have a leaking roof which is now causing the plaster in the stairway to crumble. The block looks a complete state and one good pull of the front door could break the lock. Last year we had no way of letting anyone into the building as the entry system broke and they could not see why this was dangerous if we needed to allow emergency services access. I pay over £100 a month ‘service’ charge on top of my mortgage each month, for that we get a cursory quick vacuum of the stairs and hallway and a wipe down of the banisters with a dirty, sticky cloth once a week and the odd sporadic rubbish attempt at mowing the grass outside the front entrance. Several weeks ago we lost all power in communal areas and were told it was not an out of hour emergency despite children and elderly people living here.
My friend in the block next door which is owned by another company has just had all the exterior windows in their block cleaned, all exterior brick work pressure washed, gutters and roof cleaned. She pays the same a month in service charge.
Being priced out of freehold properties due to living in a high cost of living area is very frustrating
I had the misfortune of living in a block of flats where the management company was First Port.
I always wondered why I seemed to be the only one reporting issues.
It turns out that everyone was, and the pricks on the phone were not actually logging tickets.
We caught on and made them give us a ticket reference, and you could hear the annoyance in their voice that they had to do their jobs.
Then when they realised that some of the people calling were renters, First Port started saying “no you need to speak to your landlord, they’re our customer”.
Absolute dog shit company
I used to live in a block run by Clarion housing and it’s a total scam. I actually had a very frank conversation with one of their maintenance guys and he was telling me how essentially nothing will ever be done properly and whilst we had big issues in our block I should count myself luckily as another block near ours was getting fucked over. He made it clear that he would never live in such a place due to how they refused to spend money to fix anything properly
My building has had the same – the service charge is going up and up all the time, but the state of the building and grounds is a joke. The front and back communal doors are openly accessible, as is the car park gate. The green areas are overgrown and the grass mostly dead. Fences are broken. Trying to contact the management company is pointless, and it recently took nearly two months to get our broken communal waste bins fixed – two months in which our rubbish just piled up, uncollected.
And we have nowhere to turn to.
In our building, we dropped our management company and did the whole thing ourselves. You just create a company and set directors. Then assigned some responsibilities to each tenant. The trick is that everyone must help out.
> Many of the invoices that did exist were from National Property Services Limited, a company of which Mr Saleem is the sole director.
Jesus – end leasehold tomorrow at no compensation to these vultures
Apologies that this may not help all of you but hopefully it is useful to someone –
1) There are several circumstances in which you can force the freeholder to SELL THE FREEHOLD TO YOU:
https://www.jonathanlea.net/individual-services/enfranchisement-lease-extensions/buying-your-freehold/#:~:text=Statutory%20Freehold%20Acquisition%20(Collective%20Enfranchisement,sell%20the%20freehold%20to%20you.
2) You can also do this if you have a LEASEHOLD HOUSE, and the price can be set by an independent third party to prevent you being ripped off:
https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/houses-qualification-valuation/
I did have a somewhat positive experience as a leaseholder; I bought a share in a single company that I believe was the resisdents, and we had a very decent management company along with an AGM that really did some decent stuff.
There were some frustrating parts; like the fact we might have been able to buy out the lease, and some issues with bins and such like, but on the whole they kept the place running, well lit, tidy and secure with maintained gardens and clean corridors. I paid to have my windows replaced by the company they selected to ensure they were “in-keeping”. They had the main security gate replaced, and we had endless issues with it not working. The service charge was also very high.
The only time I had issues was leaking from “my” bathroom; it was considered my fault until we identified it as an overflow from the top floor, then management company stepped in to resolve at that point. Before then I was out of pocket, as I didn’t have buildings insurance since it was supposed to be covered by them, and the excess was £1000 and they refused to claim as it might impact the premiums.
Colour me shocked that landlords are once again being worthless leeches on society.
Yeah, I’m not saying that Mr. Saleem is doing some naughty dipping into the service charge funds… but what I am saying is that, where you have few invoices and, of those you do have, most of them are not from a competitively priced, at arms length 3rd party, but a company of which you are sole director (and as can be seen on the incorporation and confirmation statements on Companies House, sole shareholder too), it can sure look to be, or can be used as evidence of, some sneaky money skimming activities by poor Mr. Saleem
How effective would setting up a petition for this labour government to review the scandalous lease hold and service charge regulations? And if not effective- why? Curious.
My service charge will be going up soon due to insurance rises. So far, the management company haven’t done anything to cause concern but it’s a constant stress in the back of your mind.
It’s probably gone offshore.
I made an offer on a new property about 12 years ago. They had a service charge of £150 per month for about 10 square feet of flower bed space.
Just pulled out of a flat purchase after finding out the managing agency overspent by £100k last year and burned through the reserve fund. Bullet dodged.
Can’t afford a house and all leaseholds are scams. Broken housing in a broken country
All scammers. The entire business is built on charging over the odds or charging for virtually nothing. Thats with a reputable by the books one, let a lone a dodgy one like in the article who isnt able to explain where the money had gone.
We had a block management company for our building with 3 flats in. They wanted £35000 for external works.
The free holder for the building woke up to this finally after the littany of exorbiant over charges for anything from a letter, to a fire alarm test to god knows what else.
He decided to self manage, and our costs virtually disappeared overnight. We got the same work they quoted 35,000 for, done for 8000. Any of the other charges we used to pay af least halved. Complete sham industry.
3800 service charge to live in that utter shithole, Jesus
Need to confiscate the passport of Samsons’ sole director Mohammed Saleem.
he’s going to do a runner pretty soon
It’s gone into his secret swiss bank account so he can buy a new car with it when nobody is looking.