Service Charge
Service charges are allocated and invoiced in accordance with the terms of your Lease or Transfer. For Ranelagh Road (Ipswich) MCL this is 1st April to 31st March each year.
The Service Charge collected from all property owners is to pay for the regular maintenance of the development. These monies are used to ensure all communal areas and grounds are maintained to the highest standard, buildings are insured, utility costs such as water and electricity are paid and that all residents can enjoy a clean, pleasant and safe environment.
The money you pay can only be spent on your development, and only residents on your development can benefit from it. Money collected is never used on other developments. These requirements are all designed to protect you and to ensure your fund is safeguarded.
For your benefit and peace of mind, all owners will receive a certified set of accounts after completion of the accounting year. Any surplus on your ‘on account’ payment will be credited in accordance with the terms of your Lease or Transfer. Similarly, any shortfall will be charged.
Payment on Account
Various items of maintenance and repair clearly involve the expenditure of money. Most leases provide for advance payments to be made in order to ensure that we are in funds and able to meet bills as they fall due. Before the commencement of a new financial year, we will send you an Budget of likely service charge expenditure. It is important to appreciate that, this is only an estimate (often based upon experience in prior years and known items of current expenditure). We can’t anticipate all circumstances. We will then invoice you for advance payment on account of this Budget at least 21 days before the advance payment must be made. Please ensure that your payment reaches us by the due date.
Payment plans
NRM has been instructed to spread payments over 12 months (Apr to Mar). Please note any prior year balances must be settled immediately (and will have been added to initial payment where deficit is shown the prior year accounts).
Late Payment
Payments in respect of Service Charge Expenditure are due to be paid on the dates specified in your lease. We will invoice you at least 21 days before the payment date. It is important that payments are made promptly otherwise there simply will not be the funds to pay for necessary expenses. It is our duty to ensure that all contributions are collected in full and in a timely manner for continuity of service
If any payments are late we will send you an overdue statement which will incur an administration fee. If payment is still not received after 7 days, we will obtain Land Registry title information and send further reminder to all linked addresses known to NRM. After 14 days your account will be passed to a debt collection agency for recovery via Court (CCJ) and/or your mortgage lender.
Some Leaseholders take objection to receiving such a communication and we regret its necessity. However a minority of Leaseholders take a somewhat casual approach to Service Charges and make payment when they feel like it. This is clearly unfair on the vast majority of other Leaseholders who do pay on the due dates. Your management company (under the terms of the lease) retain the right to add interest (at rate specified in your lease) or such rate as may be allowed by the Courts on any sums that are more than 14 days overdue.
Failure to pay Service Charge Accounts could lead to an action for forfeiture of your lease after we have obtained a certificate from the Court or the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal that the Service Charge is reasonable. If you are going to have difficulties making payment, please contact as soon as possible. It may be possible to work out a sensible payment regime. However if you do not communicate with us we will pass the papers to our solicitors and you will then become liable for legal costs as well as the amount outstanding.
The NRM Accounts Team