00:00It's a grey day out at St Clements Lake but there is a glimmer of sunshine on the horizon for Gary Clements
00:08who has finally managed to oust management company Firstport after hundreds of households
00:15saw their bills skyrocket across the Greenhide estate last November.
00:22And the bill almost doubled from just over $700 to just under $1,300 so we kind of knew something wasn't right
00:31so I'd done some rough sums and I worked out they were massively overcharging so there was something completely wrong
00:38but they just wouldn't listen every time I told them it was a problem.
00:43Despite their bills going up by hundreds of pounds, residents here say the idea that money went back into the estate
00:52is simply for the birds.
00:54We were having problems with the lake and just the way it was looking we was having you know problems with just general wear and tear
01:01you know the gazebo roof was falling off a little bit they were just patching it in roughly
01:06the estate was looking a little bit tired and it you know the grass cutting was getting to be a little bit less existent
01:14the bins were overflowing and we had a lot of rubbish everywhere.
01:18Teaming up with the residents is XL property management who will be taking over from the housing giant later this month.
01:28They say they've already found £40,000 in savings in comparison with Firstport.
01:36If I look at the estates that we've taken over from management companies typically we're saving between 15% and 50% on the estates that we're managing
01:44and we're able to do that whilst we're improving the service.
01:48So it does go to show that a number of estates across the whole of Kent are paying excessive fees
01:54and they're not getting value for money.
01:56A spokesperson for the property management company said they take matters raised by residents seriously
02:03and they work with them to resolve problems as quickly as possible.
02:09They also say that service charges cover the actual cost of maintaining a development and are not a source of profit.
02:19The battle may be won here but worries persist about whether their accounts could be left in debt by the outgoing company.
02:29But hope remains that they may at last be out of murky financial waters.
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