Posted by Andy J on July 25, 2007, 4:33 pm, in reply to "Response to Stefan"

A few of points generally in support of the directors from an expat owner (and I have my service charge records going back to '93): - Burrells Wharf is looking very good in terms of maintenance and upkeep compared with similar vintage developments (is Clippers Quay still looking prestine?) We do get a well-maintained environment for the money. - Burrels Wharf historically had very low service charges compared with other developments. Firstly this was thanks to the Halifax paying for empty units when they owned the freehold and latterly it's thanks to the resident-owned freehold company and its directors. Cascades was always used as the benchmark for excessive service charges, but we were always cheaper than places like London Yard that didn't have facilities like a pool or 24hr staff. - A lot of the complaints seem to be about the variability of the service charge. Presumably larger reserves could offset this variability, but these reserves would have to come from the general service charge. Presumably strategy for reserve funds would make an interesting discussion at the AGM. - Chesterton used to manage the estate, we hated them: now we hate R&R. That's just life, there is periodic competitive tendering. - There is not much discretionary spending in the service charge, we are just paying the bills that have to be paid. I think we are confident the directors haven't been using service charge money for a new roof on their Malibu beach house, there is no profligate spending in the budget as far as I can see. Major items like moving the estate office have been deferred, so there is clearly an effort to restrain costs, so there isn't much we can do, except each have our own reserve fund for unexpected service charge hikes.

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