An FURIOUS homeowner says his fixed service charges have doubled to £8,000 a year.
Richard Moore had bought the leasehold property in Croydon, south London, for £300,000 in 2016 as an investment to provide him with a pension in his old age.
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However, he now feels like “I'm being robbed”, adding that it was “the worst decision of my life”.
A leasehold means he owns the flat for a certain number of years, but does not own the building or the land on which it is built – which belongs to the free owner.
He added that problems with the building's cladding will make his apartment effectively worthless unless it is resolved.
The manager says the increase is due to the fact that the roof needs to be repaired, even though the flats are less than ten years old, he claims.
It comes after reforms have been implemented law On Friday it was estimated that this would help five million leasehold property owners England And Wales.
A 990-year lease upon renewal will be standard, while renewals will be cheaper and easier.
However, a promise to cap leasehold flats has affected around five million desperate homeowners thrown to the waste side.
A damning report by MPs found that leasehold homeowners had been let down “trapped in unmarketable and unmortgable homes”.
“We have seen service charge increases above inflation and that is no surprise to any tenant,” Andrew Bulmer of the Property Institute (TPI) told us. the BBC Today.
According to the TPI, a trade association for management agents, service costs have risen to more than 40% in five years.
But only 4% in the past year.
Mr Bulmer continued: “Some service charges have increased by a modest amount, but there are some, particularly those in high-rise and complex buildings that are difficult to insure, where service charges have skyrocketed and those individuals will certainly suffer.”
However, he is adamant that “margins are tight” for managing agents and that fees for their own administration have not seen increases above inflation.
He believes the new legislation should have had proper regulations, including penalties for officers.
TPI data indicates the largest factor the driving service costs are buildings insurance premiums, which have increased by 92% in five years.
Insurers claim they have no choice after the Grenfell Tower fire and the resulting security crisis in the building.
The new laws also limit the ability of insurance brokers to charge large commissions for writing policies.
Reforms to leasehold and rent have been scrapped in the run-up to the elections
Several bills were rammed through on Friday as part of the 'wash-up' process before parliament closed ahead of the July 4 elections.
These include compensation for victims of the Post office and infected blood scandals.
However, the Prime Minister sparked anger when he cast aside the Tory manifesto's 2019 pledge to ban no-fault evictions.
The move will put around 12 million private renters at risk of being evicted for no reason.
And a promise to cap leasehold flats, impacting around five million desperate homeowners, was jettisoned on the waste side.
While Michael Gove's promise to limit land rents was abandoned, some homeownership reforms survived the laundry list.
There will now be a ban on new-build homes that are operated as leasehold properties.
And existing flat tenants will be given the opportunity to extend their lease for 990 years, take control of their service charges and block the management of the buildings with voting rights.
Harry Scoffin, spokesman for the Free Leaseholders campaign, said: “Millions of leaseholders, including Conservative voters, will be devastated by this news.
'The Big Owners laugh all the way to the bank.
“A 2019 Conservative manifesto promised that rents would be scrapped at the last minute. But will Labour, in power, go where the Tories ultimately failed?”
Mervyn Skeet of the Association of British Insurers told the story BBC Although government figures show that the cladding issues have been resolved, this is only at the “life safety” level, but insurers must go further.
“We need to assess the resilience of the building, taking into account the cost of the entire building,” he said.
Insurers – many of whom refused to cover tower blocks after Grenfell – have launched a plan to better share the risk of the most dangerous blocks still needing repairs.
The End Our Cladding Scandal campaign claims there are thousands of such buildings.
Richard's flat is among the unresolved flats with cladding problems.
He said he is “not the only hostage” in Britain.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sparked outrage on Friday when he ditched the 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to ban no-fault evictions.
The move will put around 12 million private renters at risk of being evicted for no reason.
It was among the long-promised laws that were shelved hours ago parliament is closed for the general election campaign.
Several bills were pushed through in a timely manner as part of the 'wash-up' process, including compensation for the victims of the Post office and infected blood scandals.