private estate upkeep fee

[lilal]

have been living in the same house since the last yr of rates.we live on an unadopted estate roughly 400 houses,mostly band A ,30 including ours are band B, we have to pay an estate charge of £140 per year on top of council tax .council tax is the same amount for other properties in the area.any ideas on applying to get it looked into

[freakyleaky]

Hi Lilal. Which council is it that you pay the service charge to?

[lilal]

service charge is paid to management company made up of shareholders who live on the estate ,one house = one share ,the charge is for street lighting,hedge/grass cutting general upkeep of the estate .we are under breckland

[freakyleaky]

So you think the council tax should be lower as you are in effect paying twice for some services?

[lilal]

in a nutshell yes:) .last year it was £140 ,council tax was £948.so this amounts to being in the next band C.the leader of norfolk cc says sorry but there is nothing he can do about it ,breckland say it,s my choice i live on it:o .difference being when we first moved here the charge was £40.with no other houses available in our price range what else was there certainly no houses were offered from breckland.

[Chesterexpress]

Simple answer if you don't like it, sell up and move.

[lilal]

so you agree it,s fair then:p .there are 2 other estates nearby run the same so we should all sell up then .you must also agree then the council tax is a fair charge and you are quite happy to be paying say the wages of the local plastic police instead of them being funded by central government or that before long you will be charged for chucking the wrong sort of rubbish in your bin.happy days