However, many residents claim they are refusing to pay the service fees because they perceive the service delivered to be poor or non-existent. The management agent claimed that while fees remain unpaid they could only concentrate on paying essentials such as lighting and insurance and provided no maintenance of the common areas. Given the precarious state of current finances it is unlikely we will be able to do anything to improve the service delivered without significantly bolstering the account through increasing the fees for the residents who are paying or collecting the somehow collecting unpaid debts.
Arrears currently amount to approximately 50% of turnover. The sinking fund contains roughly the same amount, which must now be used to pay upcoming bills for insurance and refuse collection. That will pretty much wipe out the sinking fund hence my concern that we be fully briefed on the implications of insolvency for the company.
I'll have to examine the accounts in greater detail but the management agent did mention that it looks like one or two people bought and notified them of a change of ownership despite the unpaid bills. Their understanding was that the cut price conveyancing solicitors sometimes ignore these issues. However, this bill would fall due on the new owner.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but the individual owners need a serious reality check..if you dont pay you cannot expect a decent level of service. I sympathise to the extent that some (not all) managing agents are very very poor and seem only to be interested in collecting their fees but at your meeting you have to emphasise that those of you brave enough to take this on(and sadly with the level of time and energy you will have to devote to this coupled with the abuse you will invariably take from some owners you will probably wish you had not) are new and not responsible for the sins of the managing agents but that you do have to deal with the mess left behind.
You are going to have to scare the bejaysus out if everybody if you are going to make progress. Not by scaremongering but by telling it how it is:
A. If people dont start paying the level of service will go from poor to non existent.
B. Things cannot get better until the money comes in not vice versa
C. Promise regular updates and agree to hold more meetings so people can see what progress is being made
D Tell them that as the service suffers so will the entire value of the estate and therefore their home/ investment.This is far more serious now in what is becoming a buyers market.
E If there is no money to pay for audited accounts the company will be struck off and serious money necessary to pay to have it reinstated
F If it is not reinstated only idiots or people with idiots as their solicitors will buy their apartment: reality almost unsellable apartment!
G So if people want to live in or own a fast becoming derelict apartment complex which they cant sell until an ever mounting lump sum has to be paid then keep not paying the service charge but if you want to stop the rot then start paying now.
H Again some will never pay and you must be seen to chase these and therfore it might be worth setting up a legal fund(contributed to by those who pay) so that you can get the non payers in the end. If people who pay finally see action being taken against those who dont they may be surprisingly happy to pay more towards a legal contingency fund. The test cases would be perfect here. There may be cases of genuine hardship but do those people drive nice cars,have plasma tvs?? People need to get their priorities right also you can usually tell the genuine from the fraudster and in true cases you can work out payment plans ..you cant afford to be an easy touch
I If there are new people who have inadvertently inherited old owners debt due to their solicitors negligence or however then they have to go after the old owner and their own solicitor,sorry no sympathy the management company have enough problems of its own.
J Seriously if after telling your fellow owners the harsh realities they still dont want to pay or authorise you to take serious steps to remedy the situation then I can only advise you to step down from the management company effective immediately and put your apartment on the market asap and get the hell out as things will only get worse. It will become increasingly apparent over the coming years that badly run management company developments will lose value or not keep up in value and will be hard if not impossible to sell. So get out now(while your sanity is still intact)>