I paid £250,000 for my newbuild home but it ended in a nightmare with debt collectors – I’ve been ‘hoodwinked’

RESIDENTS who splashed £250,000 on newbuilds say they’ve been faced with a nightmare after being threatened by debt collectors.

Adrian Tacchi says he and other Shropshire locals have now come together after being “hoodwinked” by the housing developer.

The homeowner said the group have been paying a whopping £500 a year for someone to keep the area tidy – but it’s not being undertaken.

Adrian was one of dozens who splurged on newbuilds in the Shrewsbury housing development five years ago.

He said the property management company Residential Management Group Ltd (RMG) has always charged homeowners an annual maintenance fee.

But Adrian says the area is strewn with litter, the lawns are starting to grow past his ankles, and flowerbeds are now overgrown with weeds.

He said residents in Sovereign Park who have refused to pay the £500 sum are now being threatened with debt collectors.

Plus, Adrian claims he and other residents have only recently discovered they don’t own the land their home sits on as it’s leasehold.

Now the residents have come together and are planning to fight the management company.

Adrian told the Shropshire Star: “We formed the residents association as a result of very poor management services that we were expected to pay.

“We moved here December 2019 just before the pandemic so there was little or no maintenance done, but regardless of that they have asked for the full whack.

“They have not done what they are meant to do. They have never litter picked – there is litter that has been there since January.

“They are supposed to prune the trees and that’s never been done, and they won’t touch the roads. They have even let the flowerbeds get completely covered in weeds.

“They claim it has all been done and think that we won’t notice that it has not been done.”

He claimed that when he bought his home for £250,000 five years ago he understood it was freehold.

Adrian added: “We did not know that we don’t own the ground our house sits on. It is leasehold. We have been hoodwinked.”

The Shrewsbury man claimed the entire estate, which is made up of 200 homes, is fuming about the situation.

He said their first residents’ association meeting saw about 40 people turn up, adding: “Some of them have had debt collecting letters out. We thought there was a procedure for that, but apparently not.

“We are more than happy to pay them the growing rate if they do the job. But they are not doing it.”

The Sun Online has approached RMG for comment.