Getting management fee % changed

[Ceist Beag]

We live in an estate which has four different types of premises, comprising one bed apartments, two bed apartments, two bed duplexes and three bed houses. When we moved in the lease had a particular percentage allocated to each premises type which determined what percentage of the overall management fee each owner had to pay. We didn't notice this at the time (our fault I know) but noticed in this years breakdown that the owners of the two bed duplexes pay almost 50% more than one bed apartments and significantly more than even the three bed houses. Has anyone else had something like this in their lease before and did anyone ever manage to get it changed? We're thinking of raising it at the AGM and trying to get it changed to a fairer distribution of the costs as we don't believe that it costs so much more to maintain a duplex than the other premises. I have tried to get the management agency to help in providing information on this but so far they refuse to help, only pointing out that the percentages were agreed in the lease and that is the end of it. So I'm just wondering if anyone has ever managed to get this changed?

 

[LDFerguson]

Odd coincidence this - we live in an area with the exact same set-up. Any time we mention the possibility of changing these percentages the reply from the Managing Agents is invariably "It can't be done - the percentages are written in stone because you signed for them in your contract."

Now naturally I don't believe something can't be changed - it just takes the will of the right person to change it, if you could establish who "the right person" is.

However, one of my neighnours made a valid point when we were discussing this. If the overall budget for the whole area is €X and it's apportioned out according to the percentages originally agreed, then if you successfully petition to have the percentages for 2-bed duplexes reduced, the overall budget remains the same and so this reduction has to be spread out among other property-owners. Which means increasing the percentages for those who own one-bed apartments etc. This, I think, is where the problem would lie - the owners of 1-bed apartments can come back and say "our percentages were written into our contract and cannot be increased", and legally I think they'd be right.

So I think the only way to get the percentages changed would be if all residents affected by the same budget agreed to the changes, even though some would be going down and some would be going up. Can you imagine the fun you'd have trying to get a resident to agree to have his/her management fee increased?

Regards, Liam

 

[Ceist Beag]

Thanks Liam. Yeah I figured it would be a tough one trying to get the other apartment owners to agree to an increase so I thought if at least I could get all other 2 bed duplex owners on board we might at least be able to join together and put a fair argument forward. I dropped a letter in to each apartment over two months ago but would you believe not one single owner of a 2 bed duplex bothered to respond declaring an interest! So I get the feeling we're going to be stuck with this because as you pointed out, the hard part would be in getting the other apartment owners to agree but if I can't even get the 2 bed duplex owners to show some enthusiasm then its dead in the water already! Was just wondering if anyone else managed to overcome this before!