Service Charge Savings | UK Residential Property

ServiceChargeSavings.com was formed by Keri Remes and Chris Rawlins after they went through a lot pain and heartache at their apartments in the prestigious Holliday Wharf Development in central Birmingham. They were not happy with the management of their new properties and after many meetings, phones calls, emails and correspondence with the managing agent nothing ever changed, so they became directors of The Holliday Wharf Management Company (HWMC)

Double charging of invoices
Mismanagement of budgets leading to 20% overspend which had to be paid
30% Mark-ups on concierge charges
Unauthorised payments for the developer
Failure to collect arrears from lease holders
Reluctance to share accounts and financial knowledge with lease holders
Reluctance to allow lease holders to take directorship of the development
Health and Safety (numerous breaches)
Smoke Ventilation System out of service for many months
Faulty fire doors
Faulty fire alarms
Faulty vehicle and pedestrian gates (security risk)
Damage to concierge office no being repaired for 18 months

Along with the examples above of poor performance, one of the most stupid situations they found themselves in was that there were no signs for the development and after twelve months of asking the managing agent to spend HWMC OWN MONEY on some signs, they never materialised. After a further six months without the signs, as a last resort, they had to make their own signs using a printer and a laminator!

Finally after trying to work with the inherited managing agents they realised that nothing they did would encourage them to improve their service and reduce charges. The directors of HWMC made it clear that they would terminate the managing agents employment if matters did not improve, this was taken lightly by the agents and the directors realised that they had to delve further to find a solution to their problems.

They found that the management agreement, which was inherited from the developer who was only interested in selling their apartments, was weighted totally towards the managing agent and was completely unsigned. These charges included excessive yearly charges, insurance charges, company secretary charges, accountant’s charges, and unreasonable length of service period. Basically a licence to print money!

They found a route to successfully terminate the managing agents position and in June 2009 a new agent of choice was appointed on HWMC terms. To date this has already saved a considerable amount of money and service has improved to no end

ServiceChargeSavings.com has been set-up to help other leaseholders in similar situations to benefit from our experience and knowledge. Please take a look at our site and get in touch with us.