Cost of Living - How are you handling it?

Why would they put the prices up NOW? The whole energy crisis is largely over.

Photek wrote:Why would they put the prices up NOW? The whole energy crisis is largely over.

How else are the shareholders going to afford their new yachts for summer 2024?

Photek wrote:Why would they put the prices up NOW? The whole energy crisis is largely over.

Prices are coming down next month, Jawa is talking about his monthly direct debit payment

Tomous wrote:

Photek wrote:Why would they put the prices up NOW? The whole energy crisis is largely over.

Prices are coming down next month, Jawa is talking about his monthly direct debit payment

Shareholders can sleep soundly knowing that although OFGEM will put the prices down in the summer, they will raise them for the winter when people need heating.

Shareholders

'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

I hadn't thought of marrying someone to try and bring my 'leccy bill down. I may explore this option.

aayl1 wrote:

jawa_ wrote:I dunno if I've got the will to speak to them again.

Ergh I feel this so badly dude. I feel so drained thinking about how much bureaucratic nonsense you have deal with in this day and age. Always phoning and being on hold.

Oh, man, yeah. Calling up any company now is a battle of time and willpower.

Moggy wrote:Shareholders can sleep soundly knowing that although OFGEM will put the prices down in the summer, they will raise them for the winter when people need heating.

... .

I think my energy company has had a mad couple of days. They sent me an email saying that my direct debit payment is staying the same, then another email about my usage, then another email about putting the direct debit payment up, and finally an email saying that the cost will be coming down.

Gonna go online later and try and work it all out; hopefully ending up with a lower payment than what they're suggesting.

Grumpy David wrote:'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

£646 a month.

Grumpy David wrote:'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

What the strawberry float. That article is insane.

I'd gladly pay twice that to help out the landlords! After all, they must be feeling the pinch with overseas property rates going up and their holiday home incomes being impacted.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Grumpy David wrote:'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

What the strawberry float. That article is insane.

Property prices are so high that people can't afford to "own" their flat and so can only get 60% "ownership". And then get hit with service charges going from £94 a month to £646 a month in 6 years.

What a strawberry floating brilliant housing system we have.

Moggy wrote:

Grumpy David wrote:'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

£646 a month.

Makes me feel somewhat better about my own situation (£97 in 2017 and £205 from April onwards)!

The BS thing about service charge in a shared ownership home is that you might only buy 25% of the home (and pay rent on the 75% you don't own) but your service charge is based on 100% ownership.

The worst aspects of renting with the worst aspects of home owner combined into 1 package marketed as "affordable housing".

Ground Rents are something that the government is looking to reform (not with sufficient radicalism) but Service Charges desperately need sorting out too.

I am a nosey bastard and have a Rightmove alert set up on the postcode my old flat is in, just so I can see the pictures if the new owner ever sells.

So far he hasn't put it up for sale, but there have been a lot of flats in that block put up recently. Which makes me wonder just how much the banana split landlords have put up the service charges in the last couple of years.

Moggy wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Grumpy David wrote:'We can’t sell our flat and can’t afford to live in it'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckkvkv32e1ro

Their monthly service charge went from an initial £94 a month in 2017 to £515 by April 2023 - and, two weeks ago, he was informed that it would rise again, to £646 a month.



Even a shared ownership home where the Freeholder is Not For Profit has hiked up the Service Charge that no one's going to be able to sell these flats.

What the strawberry float. That article is insane.

Property prices are so high that people can't afford to "own" their flat and so can only get 60% "ownership". And then get hit with service charges going from £94 a month to £646 a month in 6 years.

What a strawberry floating brilliant housing system we have.

I own only 40% of my flat - my service charge includes my "rent" for the rest of the 60% of the flat and my service charge is slowly going up, but jesus christ going from £94 to £646 is insane. It's completely unreasonable and it's very clear that they are not spending that much on their building to justify people being charged that much.

Yeah over the past few decades the housing system in the UK has become completely broken.

Service charges sure can be unreasonable.

They're usually higher if the freeholder/builder administers the management; and lower if the residents themselves do so (via a residents committee).

My flat's residents committee sets the service charge payment. For the past decade it was fairly low but we're struggling a bit now with rising costs and are probably going to have to raise it by quite a bit. For any set of flats, the largest charges will probably be buildings insurance (which has rapidly increased these past few years) and management company cost (whoever you pay to administer day-to-day management of issues and accounts). Health and safety matters have also increased substantially these past few years; we're having to update/replace every single fire door in line with new requirements and the cost is going to be pretty high - and this comes directly from the service charge.

Factor in random ad-hoc challenges such as roof damage (we've spent circa £22k on parakeet-related damage these past four years) and service charges are really hit hard.

More modern / flasher flats that have a lift usually have even higher charges.

Of course, this isn't trying to justify a rise from £100-odd to £600-odd, though.

Tomous wrote:Yeah over the past few decades the housing system in the UK has become completely broken.

Not if you're on the ladder

(But yeah it's gooseberry fool for everyone else )

Tomous wrote:Yeah over the past few decades the housing system in the UK has become completely broken.

It's broken in most of Europe tbh. Certainly a problem over here.

LMAO imagine not already having a property portfolio worth £5M+

note to self proof read posts for clarity