Marina Property Charges - Know What You’re Getting Into!
This post isn’t intended to put you off buying a property in Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour developments, but as the saying goes ignorance is no excuse and I always think it’s better to have all the facts up front, rather than a nasty surprise later.
There are a lot of leasehold apartments in the marina, and you would expect to have the usual range of management agent-type expenses to cover ground rent, buildings and public liability insurance, maintenance of the communal grounds and common areas, lift maintenance, building maintenance as well as the overhead commissions of the agents themselves.
Council Tax never seems to go down, and as at the time of writing the value for this seems very poor as a lot of the services you’d expect from the Council, they don’t always provide as many roads and developments haven’t been fully adopted (though this is gradually changing). Instead you have to contact the developer rather than the Council to provide for you.
Utilities are the same as everywhere else, except that it is worth noting that Southern Water have been charging marina households for ‘Surface Water Drainage’ (only about £20 a year) but modern houses (i.e. all marina properties) use a soak-a-way, so this charge is nothing short of fraudulent - being charged for something that you don’t actually use, and the onus is on the householder to prove the case (and not the builder or the water authority who should know better as they are the ones with the qualifications in design and engineering)!
Marina living is obviously a privilege, and for this reason we have to pay an ‘Estate Rent Charge’ to Sovereign Harbour Trust - this includes an amount that should be paid to the Environment Agency as a contribution for Sea Defences for the beach front of the marina - something that the rest of Eastbourne residents don’t have to pay for the promenade.
I’ll leave you to read up on the various transparency issues relating to the Sovereign Harbour Trust on the residents’ association website.
Freehold Homeowners aren’t exempt from charges to communal areas either. Shared green areas (I know these are few and far between) need watering and bushes need trimming. Electric gates need oiling and electricity. All of which adds up and result in a twice-yearly invoice that needs paying.
Finally, if you buy a property in South Harbour near to the prestigous ‘water feature’ then all I can say is good luck! Friends that live there never seem to get a consistent working feature, and as a result the not insignificant annual charges still have to be paid into a slush (aptly named) fund as and when it is eventually transferred from the developer to the residents’ management company.
Phew! I think that’s it. As I hear of other developments and actual costs I’ll make other posts to keep would-be-residents and investors up to date.
Jon
