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You are here: Home / Latest News / Crisis in UK flats at last prompts Ballymore leaseholders to rebel and speak publicly about rocketing service charges to the FT

Crisis in UK flats at last prompts Ballymore leaseholders to rebel and speak publicly about rocketing service charges to the FT

March 13, 2021 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Irish builder Sean Mulryan, 66, (right) turned Ballymore into a multi-million concern, now run by his son John, 38. This week it has been criticised in Parliament over cladding and build safety scandal, and now leaseholders tell the FT of soaring service charges

Leaseholders who purchased flats from Irish developer Ballymore have finally rebelled and spoken publicly about run-away service charges – even though doing so has trashed the likelihood of anyone buying them.

It is quite an astonishing turn-about for London leaseholders, who usually like to keep quiet about the grisly truth of modern leasehold tenure and its out-of-control costs.

The Leasehold Knowledge Partnership has been contacted by all the sites mentioned, but leaseholders never wanted their woes to be made public.

‘We are trapped’: residents hit with soaring charges at luxury London homes

The Embassy Gardens development in London’s Battersea offers buyers “a life like no other”. Its website features lithe young women relaxing at various on-site facilities, including a Jacuzzi, sauna and sky-high swimming pool. But it comes with unanticipated costs.

Today, however, all these sites are also caught up in the cladding and build safety scandal and the leaseholders have little to lose: their financial investment in these homes is facing devastation anyway.

The revelations come from a Financial Times investigation published today, and they make appalling reading for Ballymore, a company privately owned by the Irish Mulryan family.

One leaseholder, feeling like “a cash cow”, at Embassy Gardens, in Battersea, south London complains of service charges rising 58 per cent to more than £6,500 since 2015.

Another, airport worker Adrian Gill, 46, who lives at High Point Village, in west London, attributes serious illness to stress caused by the service charges.

“I moved to London for a promotion and wanted a nice new-build flat with nothing to worry about or fix — but it has been non-stop stress and you are totally disempowered,” he tells the FT. “You are not a homeowner, you are little more than an inmate.”

The FT interviewed 25 Ballymore leaseholders “across several of the company’s most prestigious London developments found a common complaint: rising service charges that residents say has left them feeling trapped in increasingly unaffordable homes”.

At New Providence Wharf, in London’s Docklands, one leaseholder’s service charges have risen 77% in four years to more than £9,000pa. A neighbour has had rises of 58% over the same period.

Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore won’t be doing the ‘decent thing’ over Grenfell cladding costs at New Providence Wharf

Ballymore, which houses more than 20,000 in sites across the UK and Ireland, said it did not profit from service charges and that increases were largely due to inflation in services such as insurance and utilities. It added that service charge budgets across its developments had increased by just over 5 per cent annually over the past five years.

One leaseholder in Ballymore’s 21 Wapping Lane, east London, said the service charge was “like a second mortgage”, having risen from almost £8,000 in 2013 to £12,500 in 2020. “We feel like we are being held captive by
Ballymore,” he told the FT.

A High Point Village leaseholder, whose service charge has surged 67 per cent to about £5,000 since 2012, “We are trapped. Other people have tried to sell but [buyers] see the service charge and laugh and walk away.”

The FT references a Mayfair-based estate agent saying that service charges should rise by only 2 to 3 per cent annually and that some of the Ballymore increases were “bonkers”.

ARMA is cited stating that London service charges average £2,000pa.

The article also demonstrates the largely futile efforts of leaseholders to control service charge costs without removing management from the freeholder.

Ballymore – like other Irish developers in London – keep the freehold and management of their sites as long-term investment assets.

At Royal Wharf, the residents’ association successfully pressed Ballymore to remove a £140,000 cost for the rent of its concierge space. Then it was confronted with a new cost: £187,000 to be paid by leaseholders towards running a community centre.

A Ballymore resident said this highlighted the problem of attempting to fight the developer on specific charges. “It’s a bit of a game they play,” she said. “They may give you money back with one hand but take it back somewhere
else.”

Many Ballymore residents believe a simple fix would be to ban companies from holding multiple roles as builder, manager and freeholder of residential development

Ballymore is quoted: “We sincerely regret any impact these historic issues may have had on residents, but we are now in a period of change, one in which we are investing significant resources in better communications and engagement with residents and our resident associations.”

Meanwhile, Ballymore, founded by Sean Mulryan, 66, and run by his son John, 38, made £80m profits from its UK operation.

The future might not be so bright for anyone, however. Overshadowing UK modern flats – especially the fancy ones in London sold to international investors – is the near total destruction of the market in the aftermath of Grenfell.

No only are blocks covered in combustible cladding, one appalling defect after another is being revealed in the EWS1 process.

The message going around the world is that not only are flats built with rip-off leasehold tenure, they are built spectacularly badly as well.

Related posts:

Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore won’t be doing the ‘decent thing’ over Grenfell cladding costs at New Providence Wharf Sheikh Mohammed CommonholdFeudal Dubai cracks down on bloated service charges in flats … and puts added oomph in commonhold Enough is enough! Ballymore must pay! Average service charges are £1,863, but rise to £2,777 for new builds Joseph GurvitsSection 20B: Joseph and Esther Gurvits too late to get £3,387 service charges after an RTM

Category: Latest News, NewsTag: Ballymore, Ballymore Asset Management, Embassy Gardens, High Point Village, Madison Marriage, New Providence Wharf, Royal Wharf, Sean Mulryan

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jean Larkin

    March 13, 2021 at 10:32 pm

    It is so sad to watch hard working people struggling to pay these extra charges Higher insurance fees waking watch fees etc.The buiders are getting away scott free and the government are doing nothing to help owners whose property falls below
    18 metres Unsafe cladding is unsafe cladding no.. matter how high or low a building is if a fire takes hold in lower height apartments and lives are lost .experts have said they can only help if 18 mtres and above this is farcical If a fire starts in lower rise apartments and lives are lost who will be held responsible Act now our so called government and prevent loss of life remember Our lives are in your hands

  2. Kuku

    March 14, 2021 at 9:26 am

    I live in of of their luxury property. Needles to say, I will NEVER buy a Ballymore property after experiencing how much they are charging for managing the property.

  3. Wendy Gillespie

    March 14, 2021 at 10:36 am

    I’m with a company called y and y. Our service charge continues to go up with nothing in return. We have no luxeries of a gym or concierge just a very expensive car park with 24 security. But if any crime happens cctv never finds it. We are awaiting a very large cladding bill that should belong to them. Disgusting treatment.

  4. C Davies

    March 14, 2021 at 2:05 pm

    This isn’t just happening in London in exclusive apartments, its country wide in all kinds of dwellings. We bought a flat in December 2017 and its service charges were £1000 annually paid in two halves. In January of the following year, we received a bill for just short of £1000 for the period of January to June. July to December was another increased fee. The maintenance hasn’t increased or improved and we have no fancy services. I dont understand how they can get away with it. Silly coatings. We complain about one cost, get a reduction, only to have it taken back in another ” cost” . The government need to get a hold on this and take action to stop its continuation. People cant continue to live like this, the stress is sometimes unbearable and will lead to loss of homes and potentially, lives.

  5. Noel Symonds

    March 15, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    Yeah I bought my flat under grand farther ‘Right To Buy’ rights from Raven Housing Trust and the service charges take the piss. By law there not meant to make a profit nor bill leaseholders for non communal repairs but they do. I’m so tired of fighting but they take excessive charges, do unnecessary work and worst of all just make up charges and management fees. There is only 4 flats per block yet the charge £60 H&S yer there’s not so much as a fire extinguisher in the communal area. Not needed either. £235 management for sending a bill. Last year my service charges was easy about 2K and when I examine them many are wrong or shouldn’t be applied. I wish I never bought the flat, to much stress and now I’m unemployed can’t get help for service charges etc., I been informed for at least 9 months. I’ll be in arrears by then.

  6. R Howarth

    March 25, 2021 at 8:21 am

    LK P ,is not blameless here. It was originally set up to combat leaseholder exploitation. but should be renamed “The Cladding lobby group” as it seems to have lost all impetus and desire to influence changes anywhere else. Whilst the cladding work is hugely important it should never have diverted LKP from its original cause. It would be cynical to suggest that LKP has used cladding to take the heat off leaseholder issues but it does make you think.

  7. D Cooke

    March 25, 2021 at 4:00 pm

    Don’t know if this is an appropriate place but I have been under the cosh of FirstPort for several years. I finally published my own website detailing all my complaints.

    FirstPort won’t take any notice but it will help my fight in other ways. Instead of writing to this government agency or that official body, I just send the web address. Quicker.

    It also helps me to sort stuff out in my own head. Editing and modifying an HTML document is much easier (and more fun) than updating a Word document.

    For the technical, I can recommend CSS HTML Validator as an editor; (It checks, validates and corrects for you. You don’t need to know much)

    I recommend Filezilla for uploading and Siteground for hosting. The latter are really helpful.

    BTW the URL of my site is http://www.firstportwatch.co.uk.

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