Category: Annual Service Charge

2022-23 Service Charge (Jan-Jun 2023)

Dear Eagle Rise & Aqua Verde Residents,

The second half year Service Charge Notices (January-June 2023) have been sent by Remus in recent days to your preferred correspondence address which will either be by post or e-mail.

If your correspondence preference is e-mail, please check your junk/spam folders and if you do not believe you have received the notice, please contact Remus accordingly.

The summary schedule of costs for the period 1st July 2022 to 30th June 2023 can be viewed and/or downloaded below and the second half year charge represents 50% of the figures outlined:

2022/23 Service Charge Schedule
2022/23 Site-Wide Estate Charge

Further explanatory notes can be found HERE.

The easiest way to make payment is via the Remus Website at:
www.remus.uk.com/make-a-payment/

Just fill in the form with your account reference number and balance as found on the demand and you will be presented with various payment options to facilitate the transaction.

The payment is due on or before 1st January 2023 and late payment fees will be added for accounts not settled by this date as non-payment creates significant cash flow issues.

If you have any queries about your payment or account balance, you can use the form on the website to contact Remus.

CCMC Ltd Directors

2022/23 Service Charge Notification

Dear Eagle Rise & Aqua Verde Residents,

The budget for 2022/23 has now been agreed and Remus will be sending out Service Charge demands on this basis imminently. In a climate of rapidly increasing prices, directors have endeavoured to minimise increases to the Service Charge. This has been achieved by minor amendments to the Grounds Maintenance specification, on the basis the landscape is now well established, and reducing the sums transferred into reserves.

The year on year overall budget increase is only 0.97% and this is mainly attributed to the CIC site-wide charge as our share was estimated last year prior to the contributions being finalised by the CIC.

The summary schedule of costs for the period 1st July 2022 to 30th June 2023 can be viewed and/or downloaded below:

2022/23 Service Charge Schedule
2022/23 Site-Wide Estate Charge

Further explanatory notes can be found HERE.

CCMC Ltd Directors

2022/23 Service Charge

Dear Eagle Rise & Aqua Verde Residents,

We are aware that you have not yet been notified of the Service Charge for 2022/23 and yet the new year starts on 1st July. In a climate of rapidly increasing prices, directors have been working to minimise increases to the Service Charge and the biggest single cost is Grounds Maintenance for which discussions are ongoing with Remus and Olly (Channels Estates).

Our intention is to be in a position to communicate the 2022/23 charge to you week commencing 20th June and we are confident that there will not be any significant increase over the 2021/22 budgeted sum. We do however need to be mindful that if costs continue to rise at the current rate, the position at the end of the coming service charge year may not be so favourable and as such robust in year management will be required.

CCMC Ltd Directors

Service Charge Payments


For freehold owners, don’t forget that the due date for payment of your half year Service Charge demand for the period 1st January 2022-30th June 2022 is Saturday 1st January.

The easiest way to make payment is via the Remus Website at:
www.remus.uk.com/make-a-payment/

Just fill in the form with your account reference number and balance as found on the demand sent out in November and you will be presented with various payment options to facilitate the transaction.

Some residents may have small credits on their account as a result of an error from the days of POD Management so do check the amount you have to pay to clear your account as it could be less than the headline half year charge.

It is important that Service Charge demands are paid without undue delay as this income is used to pay contractors, which in turn ensures directors can deliver the legal obligations of the RMC. This was flagged as a key risk to effective cash management and the ability to comply with obligations as set out in the RMC Articles of Association at the AGM held on 6th September.

If you have any queries about your payment or account balance, you can use the form on the website to contact Remus.

Thanks 🙂

Important: Site Wide Costs

You will recall that directors have been investigating site-wide costs for the last 2 years and neither DJC nor POD acting as managing agents were able to provide sufficient assurance as to what we were actually paying for given that only circa 20% of site-wide land was available for use.

We have advised all parties involved on many occasions during the last 2 years that we would only pay for site-wide land we had access to and only where we were confident that expenditure was valid and appropriate. Without such information being made available, we took the decision to withhold monies and credit residents last autumn based on a proposal put forward to the site-wide management company via POD last year.

PG Property Management (who took over from POD Management and now support the site-wide management company) proposed a way forward in February 2021 which directors agreed to in principle on the understanding full sets of reinstated accounts for the last 4 years were made available for us to inspect. The site-wide contributions that form the 2021/22 Service Charge presented at the EGM in May support this proposal.

Unfortunately we have not been furnished with re-stated accounts and as we are obliged to look after the interests of CCMC members, we are standing firm in that we will not pay any further monies owing until the accounts (together with supporting information and invoices where appropriate) are received. PG Property Management have suggested that they will be writing to all residents imminently (as part of a wider update) flagging the CCMC arrears position.


CCMC directors (supported by Remus) are working with PG Property Management on this issue and indeed no direct legal relationship exists between the site-wide management company and individual residents.

As such individual residents do not have to take any action and there is no requirement or need to liaise directly with the site-wide management company on this issue.

Given the lack of assurance we received from both DJC and POD in relation to site-wide expenditure, we believe that members would rather us undertake sufficient and robust due diligence prior to paying any further monies to PG Property Management, especially as this accounts for 30% of the overall service charge.

For the avoidance of doubt, PG Property Management is a company created by directors of Ptarmigan Land to act as site-wide managing agent. Ptarmigan Land is the consultancy firm that acts for and represents the land owner in relation to the Channels development.

Service Charge Payments


For freehold owners, don’t forget that the final date for payment of your half year Service Charge demand for the period 1st July 2021-31st December 2021 is Friday 16th July.

The easiest way to make payment is via the Remus Website at:
www.remus.uk.com/make-a-payment/

Just fill in the form with your account reference number and balance as found on the demand sent out in June and you will be presented with various payment options to facilitate the transaction.

Thanks 🙂

Site Wide Cost Queries

The opening of Channels Park, which is part of site-wide communal land that is gradually being opened up for use, has raised a number of questions in recent weeks and has prompted correspondence both to CCMC Ltd directors and the site wide management company.

Channels Park formed part of the original Planning Consent back in December 2012 (which can be found on the Chelmsford City Council Planning Portal). The image below is the Red Line outline for the planning consent that clearly shows the park area. The Skate Park and the Play Area were also part of the original Planning Consent.

The Deeds of sale for every home at Channels include a requirement to contribute towards the maintenance of site wide open space and provision for this is included in the planning consent.

The provision of open space maintenance through a service charge has become the norm for large developments in the last 10 years for several reasons, not least that historically Councils have been poor at maintaining such space, leading to very poor quality public domain space and indeed most Councils don’t want the responsibility.

All of the developers should have made it clear to their buyers that there was a service charge which included site wide elements and additionally solicitors should also have made this clear to buyers.

We have collated some further information on the Service Charges page for your reference that explains the obligations on owners and where the requirement to contribute to site wide open space is documented.

Directors are working closely with Remus and the site-wide management company to better understand future costs and how ongoing decisions in relation to site-wide communal land are made.

The site-wide elements will continue to be collected via the Service Charge however as previously notified, no further monies will be released to the site-wide management company until there is clarity on these matters.

Service Charge Update


Further to the update provided at last weeks residents meeting, and following further discussion with POD, credits in relation to the estate-wide service charge have now been applied to resident accounts. The total credit amounts to just under £200 per resident (pro rata as necessary) which is in line with the original instruction given to POD in July.

Information about the investigation into site-wide expenditure, as originally notified to residents in July 2020, can be found here.

If there are outstanding balances remaining on accounts after the credits are applied, this will be flagged with a request to pay the balance accordingly. As noted at the residents meeting, there are some balances that are considered so large (over 2 years) that formal debt recovery will begin should the balances not be immediately paid.

POD will be sending letters to residents week commencing 14th December confirming the credit and any balances outstanding which must be paid.

Please note that due to the impending change of managing agent and second half year service charge fee being due in January, the site-wide credits will remain on account and as such there will be no physical refund of monies at this stage.

If you have any specific questions about the site-wide credits, do not hesitate to get in touch via the Contact Form on this website.

Andrew Wright
For and on behalf of CCMC Ltd Directors

Notice of Residents Meeting

Dear Eagle Rise & Aqua Verde Residents,

Further to 2020/21 Service Charge demands being sent out by POD Management, and subsequent to feedback received, directors of the Residents Management Company will be holding a virtual meeting to provide clarity about the Service Charge Budget and to answer questions that residents may have.

The meeting will be conducted using the Zoom video conferencing facility on Monday 27th July at 7.30pm using the details below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82667946492

All residents are welcome to attend however directors ask that you carefully read the content of a letter that will be received by every household imminently as this contains information about the meeting, the rules that will be used in conducting it and an option to delay payment of 2020/21 Service Charge increases.

The letter can be downloaded/viewed (pdf) here:

To assist in efficient running of the meeting, you can submit a question in advance. All questions received will be collated and addressed prior to the open forum and may well cover most concerns.

Please only submit one question per resident and please ensure that all submissions are received no later than midday on Wednesday 22nd July.

You can submit your question via www.ccmc-ltd.uk/ask

The directors look forward to meeting residents on Monday 27th July.

Service Charge Update

Dear Eagle Rise & Aqua Verde Residents,

By way of a reminder, residents are obligated, as stated in their deeds, to pay an appropriate fee (Service Charge) for upkeep of the estate in perpetuity whilst they remain the owners of their properties. The council will not take on any responsibility for the communal areas. There is also an obligation for residents, as part of planning conditions, to contribute to the upkeep of site-wide estate areas.

The Service Charge period runs from 1st July to 30th June and notifications will be sent to residents and Housing Associations imminently with the expectation that payment on account is made on or before 1st July 2020.
Notifications will be sent by POD Management with detailed supporting information which explains how the Service Charge has been derived.

A reminder of why we have a Residents Management Company and what it does can be found here.