Hi wazuans,
i recieved an email this morning from Thika Greens and it talked about a fee of ksh 3000PM(ksh 36000)P.A service charge which apparently was introduced this January.The fee was deemed fit and adequate to maintain infrustructure,security,rent and common services.

I was therfore wondering,as owners and stakeholders of the piece of property,weren't we supposed to be consulted before such a decision was made and are we suppoosed to make such payments before our subleases are out.

anyone with experience or knowledge??

exactly.

how is a sublease a con.kindly explain

Can you read your sale agreement very carefully. Somewhere it will say that you are to pay service charge of 50% if construction of your house is not completed within a certain time frame of grant of sub-lease - check whether its 36 months. Also in your sale agreement, the amount of service charge will be clearly stated. You can Google to see the disadvantages of sublease, especially in Kenya.

As if these guys Thika Greens will still be surviving and incase they will how any African Businesses are surviving past first generation from what we are reading in the news nowdays?
I however do not support the lease fee though will take it up with the lawyer.

I dont know about the thika green project but usually(if not in all cases) when a buyer gets into a controlled development, they get one share of the management company, when the lease expires, the title reverts back to the management company and it is renewed.
The reason why you dont get a title in such a project is because the moment you do, the shared amenities e.g roads become the responsibility of the council and ends up being run down&stops being a controlled development.
The biggest reason why controlled developments will not be successful is non payment of service charge by the buyers, look at the many city estates.

Buyers get into projects at different times and bills must be paid. By the time the resident association is being formed, where will the money for paying the watchman come from? caretaker's salary,common area electricity bill etc. Getting into those kind of projects happens gradually, does that mean the 1st tenant should pay for all that before the 2nd one moves in?
Youd rather have a fixed charge with proper breakdown. When the management company comes on board and members feel its too much then it can be changed BUT if the service charge is incorporated in your sale agreement then that becomes tricky.