A man who wanted to buy his home has slammed a housing provider for quoting £4,500 for an annual service charge - despite neighbours paying around £361 per a year.
Glen Mowat, 43, has lived in his Gentoo home at Waltham, Washington , for more than 20 years and decided he wanted to buy the home through the Right to Buy scheme.
But Mr Mowat was left outraged when he received a letter saying that the annual service charge for the property would be £4,500 - or £352 per month - for the next five years.
He said: "That's more than £22,000 just in that first five-year period.
"It seems funny that the service charge is the same amount as my rent and would need to be payed on top of my mortgage payments.
"It also comes to the same amount that I can buy my flat for - £22,000."
Mr Mowat, who works for a removal firm, queried the bill with Gentoo after speaking to neighbours who pay an average of £361 for the year.
Gentoo Group told ChornicleLive that Mr Mowat's high figure was down to a clerical error, but Mr Mowat said the firm was asked numerous times to check it.
He said: "I asked for the fee to be checked as it is outrageously high in comparison and I was repeatedly told it was correct, which lead me to withdraw my right to buy. I was told don't buy it - that's the price."
In a bid to find out why the figure was so high, Mr Mowat sought legal help and contacted the housing provider to again ask for the figures that the charge was based on so they could be investigated.
Mr Mowat says he was told there was a sinking fund that tenants paid into, but said his figure should not be inflated because he was now buying.
"I have been renting my property for 26 years and there is a service charge included within the rent, so I can't be told that I haven't been paying into that," he said.
He added: "Overnight, they knocked £3,000 off my service charge and said it would now be £1,500. How can they do that?"
Graham Gowland, executive director (Property) at Gentoo Group, said: "We are very sorry for this unfortunate clerical error and the unacceptable delay in the production of Mr Mowat’s service charge quote.
"We have since corrected the calculation to reflect the repair and maintenance of the building in years to come and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”
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