Service charges on holiday lodge

[Leecoope]

Are there many out there who have a holiday park lodge and are liable to pay service charges?

We have a lodge in North Cornwall and we seem to be in constant disagreement with the site owners over the level of service charges they are allowed to levy.

The site has expanded continually over the last ten years and the landlord has been through a number of insolvent administrations but the same people seem to emerge each time under different company names.

There are also a number of problems with planning permission and building control issues on the site.

The site owners seem to think they can charge lodge owners whatever they like by way of service charge including development costs for expanding the site and infrastructure for building new lodges.

We bought the property through a solicitor but we were not warned of any of the potential problems with the site and when we went back to her asking for advice on specific items included in the service charge, she did not seem to know, saying things like a barrister would have to advise and that the deeds were supposed to be flexible. This was the vendor's preferred solicitor.

These holiday parks are not uncommon and I would like to know whether other people have experience of this.