Ask your questions below
This post is provided so you can ask questions about your latest service charges in St Edwards Park, Cheddleton. Please let your neighbours know about it although it is referred to in your Service Charge Notification letter.
Comments will be moderated so there may be a delay in posting your question and it appearing. The questions and answers will be added to the FAQ format below.
If your question is of a more personal nature eg there is a repair you need, please email Block@castle-estates.co.uk directly. By all means copy us in on the email if you have been waiting more than a month.
Frequently Asked Questions
I’ve received my charges by email. Why do they need to be sent by post too? Surely, it saves money to not post them?
The Law requires a certain format and delivery of Service Charges to owners. They are required by (obviously an old) Law to go out by mail.
Rather than raise any queries after the final version of the invoice is released would it not be better for Castle Estates to release a draft version for discussion and agreement then the final version would be released?
The Service Charges are budgeted for the coming year. The Directors spend a lot of time on these taking into account planned and potential reasonable maintenance requirements based on historic costs and/or obtained quotes.
The actual costs are then produced in a set of accounts. These are released during the following year and any adjustments are made (invoice / credit note) on your account.
The Lease has a number of legal requirements which the Management Company / Service Provider must provide.
Members are quite welcome to ask queries and/or clarification. It is worth bearing in mind that an individual property’s charges are related to the given ‘House’ e.g. Gough, Boucher so they are not all the same.
My charges have gone down again this year 🙂 Will they suddenly shoot up again?
A number of large maintenance works have either now been completed or should be completed this Spring. For example, all the communal areas have now been painted. The external windows and doors will be started after Easter. The rendering is due to be cleaned and repaired where needed around the same time.
These will be repeated on a 5 year cycle. You will notice some charges for ‘reserves’ which will be used to mitigate these large cyclical, site wide, maintenance costs.
When is the AGM?
The AGM is on Sunday 21st May at the Rugby Club at 4 PM
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF TIME: IT IS 4 PM
If I want to put myself forward as a Volunteer director this year – what do I need to do?
Last year it was put back in the Articles that the Directors resign each year and they and/or new Directors (7) are voted in.
So, what does it involve? You obviously need to let others know about you and how you think you can help. Learning from this year we would say:
- It would better suit someone who was part-time employed or retired.
- It can take, on average, 2 hours a week , sometimes more depending if you are arranging / working with contractors on site (it can take an hour and half to take a contractor round all the apartments blocks) . You may occasionally visit an owner if there is a query that is better sorted face to face.
- More representation from owners of the apartments would be great as that will give a larger knowledge-base of Lease intricacies from the point of view of the owners most supported by the volunteer Management Company. Also, you are around to see how works are going and check up on work completed.
- You don’t have to have ‘director’ experience to volunteer for this role. You just need to care about our Park and respect the people who live here.
- • If you don’t know much about the Leases and Articles of Association, there are people willing to help with this.
There are a couple of bollards down on the main roads – why haven’t they been fixed?
I have reported them to the council and they have told me they are ‘not a priority’. They do still have them ‘live’, however, as they emailed me about 6 weeks ago to tell me they are still not a priority!