Montgomerie Park North Ayrshire Council Maintenance Charge

Council Maintenance Charge

What its all about: I know it’s lengthy – but hang in there!

Everyone who purchases (or rents) a house in Montgomerie Park has two maintenance charges to pay – yes two!

The first is paid to the factor who looks after the privately owned common ground within each estate. You were probably aware of this.

The second charge is one imposed by North Ayrshire Council (NAC), who very cleverly created a Deed of Conditions of their own – covering all open space land within Montgomerie Park and forcing all residents to pay for the maintenance of this land.

Yes, this is the land owned by the Council which would normally be maintained by funds from your Council Tax!

Oh but wait – it gets better!

Eventually the Council intend to ‘give’, yes give (free – gratis) all of this land to a company called Scottish Woodlands Ltd, who will then own the land and not NAC.

After that, this private company will of course only charge a minimal fee for the land maintenance. Of course they won’t be looking to make a profit will they?

You bet they will! Across the UK land transfers are happening on most new estates, and the first thing that these companies do is increase the cost. Not by just a few pounds – no by 30-40%.

So if you think paying £165 is bad now – just wait! Of course it’s not all that bad, you pay good money to live in a nice estate that is well maintained – that’s why you pay all this extra money!

Just think how lucky you are. You get to pay this extra charge and get the added bonus of people letting their dogs crap outside of your from door!

Well before you site back and relax, just bare one thing in mind. Most of these companies take your money and then just sit back and don’t do anything! After all, why should they, it’s their land – if they don’t want to maintain it then they don’t have to. The only involvement you have is the fact that you have to pay them to do it – it’s in the Deeds, it’s the Law!

Oh and by the way. Even if you are a Tenant of Irvine Housing Association – you still have to pay! Currently tenants pay around £6 per week to cover the cost of maintaining their estate, and the NAC open space land. The NAC deeds say it is 10% of the overall cost. So in years to come when this land is transferred the rent won’t go up will it? Of course it will! Not only that you don’t have any say about what happens to the landscaping around your estate either!

History:

The Residents of Montgomerie Park are very upset at the idea that not only do they have to pay a factors fee for the privately owned common land within each development; but also because they have been burdened with paying for the maintenance of public open space in the development as well.

To compound the issue, not only do residents have to pay for the land maintenance but:

They do not own the land.
They do not have any control over the land.
They do not have any say over the land or maintenance.
The council are not transparent about charges.
North Ayrshire Council do not want the responsibility for the land and thus intend to ‘transfer’ ownership of the land to a private company.

This means when the land is transferred it will be owned and controlled by a private company and still the residents will have no control, but still be legally obliged to pay!

As of September 2008 the first two ‘phases’ of land will have transferred ownership to Scottish Woodlands Ltd.

This is simply not Fair!

This dispute with NAC. over landscape maintenance charges has been going on for 3 years.
Residents first became aware of the problem when they were issued invoices in 2005.
They were threatened with court action while trying to find out what the invoices were for.
At this time no landscaped areas existed which required maintenance.
November 2006, residents had a meeting with NAC. and our MP.
Council apologised for their unreasonable actions and agreed to scrap the 2005 charges and refund those who had already paid.
Meeting was adjourned as time had run out – a further meeting would be scheduled.
The council also presented an account of landscape costs for the first six months of 2006.
This list was again disputed by the residents – the 2006 & 2007 charges were subsequently written off by NAC.
This brings us up to date, where more residents are now actively involved following a new invoice which was issued in July 2008.
The majority of the original issues remain unresolved.

Recent events have added additional concerns regarding the entire landscape management issue. i.e: The issue with the Greenbelt Group.

We find ourselves in a very similar scenario as the other estates across the U.K.

Finally after 2 years a meeting was arranged once more with N.A.C. and representatives of the residents. This took place on 16^th September 2008.

NAC still refused to change their stance on the policy.

No Council minutes appear to exist showing that this new council ‘policy’ was voted in by the Council members.

Following a meeting in October 2008, the ward councillors agreed to investigate why no vote was taken and how this charge became policy without the vote or knowledge of elected council members.

To date no further information has been forth coming from the council or councillors.

Montgomerie Park

Council took ownership of land from Irvine Development Corporation (IDC).
Council appointed Montagu Evans to advise on sale and development of land.
Advised that land sales should be done on a phased basis to maximise profit.
Council registered Deed of Conditions (July 2003).
Imposed burden to ensure residents would pay for maintenance of public open space.
Initially (up until end of 2007) builders did not inform buyers of two charges.
Buyers were only informed of factor fee on private common areas.
Solicitors ‘missed’ fact that two deeds of conditions existed.
To date – not all landscaping complete in areas where it should.
2008 invoice to cover maintenance from 1^st April 2008 – 31^st March 2009.
Council intend to license landscape maintenance to Scottish Woodland Ltd.
Ownership of ALL open space land to be eventually transferred to Scottish Woodland Ltd.