Housing Association Grounds Maintenance Service Charge - Don't Want to Pay

[henrygregory]

I have a Shared Ownership property.
I have had cause to continually chase our Grounds Maintenance Management company regarding dead plants and trees for which they are responsible for and for which I pay a monthly service charge.
When I purchased my property from the Housing Association, I was reassured by the HA Sales Team that all communal areas are regularly maintained, dead plants replaced and generally the areas are kept in very good condition. This has not been the case and I have found myself on countless times having to trim the plants in these areas as they are so overgrown.

Having continually chased the Grounds Maintenance Management company, and rarely getting responses, when I am lucky enough to get one, there have been pathetic excuses for why I got no reply such as emails going to junk etc but I am always reassured that the issues will be rectified, dead plants replaced etc. This has not happened.

As my property is Shared Ownership and I have tried countless times to get the Grounds Maintenance Management company to do their job with no positive outcome, I contacted my HA to say I am not happy to pay my monthly grounds maintenance service charge as I am not receiving the service I am paying for. I included evidence of my conversations with the Grounds Maintenance Management company, where it was clear how many times I had had to chase things, but never got a resolution. It is the HA I pay my service charges to and it then pays a portion of this to the Grounds Maintenance Management company.

The HA responded saying they had visited my street, but as far as they are concerned, the development looks 'ok' and they would only deal with bigger issues affecting more residents so I should contact the Grounds Maintenance Management company, despite my including evidence of the amount of times I have contacted the Grounds Maintenance Management company.


I have again responded to the HA stating that as I pay my service charge to the HA, I need the HA to take action on my behalf. I have evidence of how many plants are now missing as they died and have not been replaced. I also included evidence of work I had done to tidy the areas as it was not being done by Grounds Maintenance Management company. The HA has failed to take any action on my behalf.

Can anyone tell me where I stand on this? Non Shared Ownership but outright ownership neighbours have placed their accounts on hold with the Grounds Maintenance Management company on the basis that they have not received the service they have paid for. I wish to do the same, but need my HA to work with me rather than ignoring my concerns and fobbing me off.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[dslippy]

The first answer is that contained in your deeds. Just who has covenanted to do exactly what?

Withholding the service charge from the HA is asking for trouble. I would not say don't pay, but if you don't, make absolutely sure that you have the full amount of arrears in a seperate account ready for payment.

Who does the Grounds Management Maintenance Company contract with?

Please understand that 'shared ownership' can mean several different things, and a structure you may have can differ substantially from the next person who comes here for help.

[henrygregory]

The first answer is that contained in your deeds. Just who has covenanted to do exactly what?

Withholding the service charge from the HA is asking for trouble. I would not say don't pay, but if you don't, make absolutely sure that you have the full amount of arrears in a seperate account ready for payment.

Who does the Grounds Management Maintenance Company contract with?

Please understand that 'shared ownership' can mean several different things, and a structure you may have can differ substantially from the next person who comes here for help.

Thanks for your reply.
Here is the part I think you are referring to. The HA keep coming back to me stating they see no issue with the grounds maintenance despite my providing photos and evidence of my communications with the Grounds Maintenance Management company where they have clearly acknowledged that they need to order replacement plants and get them planted. This was in July 2022. I have been chasing for things to be done for in excess of 18 months and I have the evidence to show this.

The time it has taken me to now deal with the HA, who are ignoring the evidence I am providing is sitting at around 1.5 hours. I would like compensation for this wasted time.

SO for me is a property in a street, i.e. a house. This is not a shared block or flats. The areas in question are communal flower beds in the street and grass areas.

[dslippy]

Where is the covenant by the Landlord to maintain the communal areas?

[henrygregory]

Where is the covenant by the Landlord to maintain the communal areas?

Thanks for your post. Sorry for my delay, it has taken me a substantial amount of time to go through the paperwork but this is what I have found so far.

Engrossment Lease Defined Terms Communal Facilities:

Except and Reserved for the Transferor:


Give Notice of Defect:


Letter from my solicitor extract:

[atticus]

you have given a definition of "Communal Facilities", and quoted something that refers to "Common Parts". Does the definition of Common Parts include Communal Facilities?

[henrygregory]

you have given a definition of "Communal Facilities", and quoted something that refers to "Common Parts". Does the definition of Common Parts include Communal Facilities?

Thanks for your post. Sorry, I overlooked that. Here is the definition, as you can see, it included communal gardens/landscaped areas. These are the areas I am not happy about:

[dslippy]

Withot wishing to be picky, you promise to pay a fair part of what the landlord spends on the communal facilities and common parts, but I have not seen a promise from the Landlord to maintain those parts.

Have I or you missed something?

[henrygregory]

Withot wishing to be picky, you promise to pay a fair part of what the landlord spends on the communal facilities and common parts, but I have not seen a promise from the Landlord to maintain those parts.

Have I or you missed something?

Ok thanks. The document is around 80-90 pages long so it may well be I have missed something. But to be honest, I am really quite tired of batting this issue back and forward to the housing association, particularly when the management company agreed to replace the dead plants in print in an email to me, but have still not done it.

From what I have posted above, seeing as the landlord doesn't seem to promise they maintain these parts, are there any loopholes that mean I don't have to pay the service charge as I am exhausted with going back and forwards for 18 months and getting nowhere.

[atticus]

Look through the landlord's covenants, i.e. what it promises to do. They will be in there somewhere.

[dslippy]

They may not be. This is central. The tenant covenants to re-imburse te landlord his expenses associated with maintenance of the common parts. The landlord has spent the money, so the OP must pay.
But what te OP wants is to say that the landlord has not satisfied his part of the bargaiin - to maintain the common parts. The landlord may not have given that commitment.
It is the difference between the LLL paying a bill, and achieving a result.

[henrygregory]

I have had another look through and found the following under Draft Freehold Transfer. Does this help?

[dslippy]

Doesn't appear to change anything. No direct covenant by the transferor to maintain the common parts.