Service Budget for 2020

Daniells Harrison are about to send out the service charge bills for the next 6 months, along with the budget for the next year.

We have discussed the budget with them. In addition to the usual items there is another £1,150 for the last part of cutting back the hedges to their original size, and £2,000 for planting the replacement trees required by Fareham Borough Council after the 6 dead and dying pine trees were felled.

In the past we have questioned the insurance costs, which have increased significantly over the past few years. Most of this increase is driven by low interest rates, but we also found that Estates & Management were taking £248 out of this for "services rendered". Since then the job of Estates & Management as the middle-man between Daniells Harrison and H&M (Solitaire) Ltd has been taken over by a different company called HomeGround. I have written to them about this "services rendered" charge, and they have written back to assure me that they will not be charging a management fee.

The previous reserve fund was used to pay for the tree felling and cutting back the hedges, which is why the last 6 month charge was so much lower than originally budgeted. Daniells Harrison originally proposed that we pay £3,000 into the reserve fund this year to start building it back up. Normally the Committee would have agreed to this. However we were concerned that on one hand we are still having to pay an extra £3,150 this year to finish the hedge work and plant the new trees required by Fareham Borough Council, and on the other hand there are going to be householders who have taken a financial hit from the COVID-19 lockdown. Therefore we have asked to postpone the payment into the reserve fund for a year. This means that our reserves remain exhausted, so anything unexpected is going to have to be paid for by an extra charge levied during the year.