Residents are obligated, as stated in their deeds, to pay an appropriate fee 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 “strategic” (site-wide) estate areas.
The Service Charge Budgets for the current year and previous 5 years can be found below:
2022/23
2021/22
2020/21
2019/20
2018/19
2017/18
Service Charge Obligations
When registered land is sold, a Transfer Deed is used instead of a Conveyance. The stationery on which the Transfer Deed is written is a Land Registry pro-forma:
- Form TP1 for the transfer of part of an existing registered title.
- Form TR1 for the transfer of the whole of an existing registered title;
The typical use of a TP1 Transfer is for the sale of a new house built on land that is owned by and is already registered to a developer, in our case Bellway Homes. Anyone that bought their house new from Bellway will have a TP1 and whilst this is not part of the contract for sale, it contains key binding obligations that form part of the land transfer/register of title.
If you can’t locate your copy, which would have been provided by your solicitor/conveyancer, you can search for it on the HM Land & Registry site and download a copy for a small fee.
Typically title registers tend to be limited to a single page which shows the title number, the address of the property, the identity of the registered proprietor/s, the price paid, and the identity of the mortgage lender to whom the registered proprietors owe money.
Our title registers however include a huge volume of very detailed information including definitions, positive & restrictive covenants, rights, reservations and importantly an appended Deed of Covenant between Bellway (the “Developer”), CCMC Ltd (the “Management Company”) and whoever bought the property (the “Transferee”). This Deed includes a schedule of responsibilities for the Management Company and therefore what owners are obligated to contribute to.
The complete document is rather convoluted and all parts need to be considered together however the TP1 itself defines the area known as the “Channels Estate” and this is also confirmed in the Deed of Covenant for the Management Company, where it is defined as the “Wider Estate”.
The image below defines the area known as the “Channels Estate” or “Wider Estate” and is included in each owners document:
The schedule of responsibilities of the Management Company listed in the Deed includes the following:
It is therefore the responsibility of the Management Company to contribute to what we refer to as site wide costs and that obligation is passed onto individual resident owners, via the annual Service Charge, on the basis those owners are tied to the Management Company both through membership and the Deed of Covenant which covers the ‘Wider Estate’.
All owners are therefore obligated to contribute to the cost of maintaining communal land within the boundary as defined above, whether it be that owned directly by CCMC Ltd (Bellway Management Company) or that owned by Channels Community Stewardship CIC (Site-wide Management Company).
Channels (Chelmsford) Management Company Ltd 