Are Cheshire Buyers Being Ripped-off by Housebuilders?

Today's article on the Cheshire Live highlights the problems of people buying new houses on new developments which involve private management companies looking after the shared roads and open spaces. Councils insist on integrating public open spaces to new housing schemes but will not adopt them as they don't have the resources to maintain them, In parallel they allow more and more houses on shared private drives because they don't have the resources to adopt them, and so the residents end up with maintenance contracts on these items, which not just costs but also causes rifts between neighbours.

A good way to control the costs is for the residents to run the management/maintenance contract, which means they control the budget, but this takes a lot of willing neighbours with time to spare. The answer is surely to have less small insignificant Public Open Spaces in lieu of off-site payments to help councils maintain the existing parks, and more resources at the County Highways departments to adopt and maintain the roads.

Words of caution - Housing Associations who own thousands of houses do not like any houses which are not situated on adopted roads for exactly this reason, and they should know! If you are thinking of buying a new house, check out very carefully the shared spaces, who controls them and and costs of maintenance now and in the future.

‍