Management fee refund

sparkle1

Hi all,

Did everyone else get the REFUND on their management fee in the Wood. Shock Horror. Well done guys for speaking our minds and hassling them!!

matt-dublin

This was to so with the cost of gardening i believe.

I think zapi had to pay the difference of the cost of the gardeners vs the budget.

avantarklu

The reason for the refund had nothing to do Zapi. The reason for it was as follows:
- each year the management fee is based on an ESTIMATE of expenses for the coming year
- at the end of each year, the ACTUAL costs, as certified by the Management Company's Auditor, are compared to Estimate and the difference, plus or minus, is supposed to be charged or refunded.

In accordance with the terms of the lease, this is to happen each year. This was not been done and as a result, a large overcharge had arisen since day 1 (nearly €49,000). This was in addition to the Surplus Fund approved in each year's Budget.

The system operates in exactly the same way as your ESB bill; you receive a number of bills based on estimated usage and then, once your meter is read, your bill is adjusted to actual. The only difference here was that it took nearly seven months of constant contact with various people in the Management Agents office and the Board of Directors before the powers that be would acknowledge the fact and abide by the terms of the lease.

mikedragon32

For what it's worth, the refund seems to have been miscalculated. It would seem that no matter how long you've been living in the Wood (and being over charged) the excess payments were just divvied out on a per unit basis and not on the basis of how long we've been getting overcharged for.

A small victory nevertheless and well done to the individuals involved in pursuing it (and NO, it wasn't your friendly Charlesland Wood Residents' Committee).

Charlie-Bravo

Good work Avantarklu,

But the cheek of them send out a credit note. I would prefer a REFUND.

Now, I believe that was for 2004 only?! Correct me if I'm wrong...I must be owed money for the last two years also!


Edit....

Mike, that makes sense cause it took a whole year to get the rest of the people in down the back of the Wood.

avantarklu

The terms of the lease covering this issue allow for the Directors to decide on whether the adjustment should take the form of credit or a refund.

From a practical point of view, the credit is more advantageous as it does not affect the cash resources available to the Management Company and therefore it's ability to meet payments for services. It is is no ones interest to starve the Mgt Co of cash as it would only result in a delay in the provision of services such as grounds maintenance which is key at this time of the year.

The refund was for the period from commencement (2004) up to 31 December 2006. Unfortunately, Mikedragon32 is correct, the individualy refund for each unit has been carried out incorrectly, however, the total of €49k is correct. The calculation used effectively assumed everyone was in residence from day 1.

mikedragon32

avantarklu wrote:

Unfortunately, Mikedragon32 is correct