Has anyone heard of Freehold Managers Ltd?

frustrated21

I also have a great deal of trouble with this company. I have a similar experience to those who have already posted. FM rarely answer e-mail and if they do finally answer the phone they are either rude or unhelpful.

I am currently living abroad and renting out my UK property. As required by the lease I obtained FM and mortgage lenders permision to rent. FM charge me 125 GBP per year for this privilige!

My latest problem with them is a ground rent bill. Despite sending a cheque and subsequently requesting a statement to ensure it was cleared - Again a letter promising legal action if I didn't respond within 14 days. Well - it took 19 days for the letter to get to me!

I have learned in the past that it is possible to have them remove 'late payment' charges but you have to be very persistent.

Good luck!

CHIR0

I have just received a letter from Freehold Managers PLC. Over five years ago I bought this flat but had no joy with getting the ground rent sorted out. No invoices sent to me until last weeks demand. The more I read the letter the more it looked wrong. So I did a search and found three addresses linked to them that were also used by Solitaire Property Management. Even the website of FM Plc is unprofessional, insisting the insurance should be with Zurich. Ah Ha! Solitaire insist on using Zurich at twice the cost of anyone else. Turns out they are owned by Solitaire / Peverel / Consensus Group.

Any way I have decided to get proof that they are in fact the freeholders as they have stated or are entitled to collect the ground rent. The paperwork states they act for the freeholder who is in fact the same company from a Companies House search. The registered number is the same one for them as the company they say they are acting for.

As for the admin fees added without any explanation, that is exactly the same kind of stunt employed by Solitaire.

ttd14

Freehold Managers are a very big company that own Freehold's for a lot of properties, and I have dealt with them alot. The contact details for service of demands is Molteno House as quoted in previous posts. It's a shame, I haven't had the opportunity of reading reviews like this by FM.

If there are any problems specifically, feel free to PM me as I'm fairly familiar with the practices so I could advise further.

glottalstop

Molteno House is the address given by many Peverel Group companies who act as agents for freehold vehicles within the Peverel Group. Another example is Estates & Management Ltd.

The function of collecting ground rent is now separate to service charges for leasehold management.

There may be a sister company which actually manages the property and collects service charges.

The Peverel Group/CBG is full of dreadful property management companies and agents. Examples are Solitaire, Consort, and PeverelOM. They are in the process of re-branding to OM Property Management and are based in Luton. Research these companies and you will discover a mountain of complaints and shocking stories about them.

There is a site called The Truth About Solitaire which describes the relationship between the companies, and their directors.

lilac_dawn

Apparently they are able to charge me ground rent and i have paid them dutifully for the past 3 years. Last year I paid them by direct bank transfer, emailed a proof of payment, then 2 months later got a demand for non-payment plus threats of charges. I called them up to tell them I've already paid it, asked for the name of someone I can send it to as they didn't seem to receive it by email and the woman swore and me and told me not to send it then. Nice. I don't particularly want a mark on my credit record so what should I do next? How do I check these people are actually entitled to this ground rent?

glottalstop

A demand to pay ground rent must be accompanied by the correct notice / comply with S.166 of the CLRA 2002.

If you have paid all legal demands you should write stating so, including any proof of payment, and dispute the extra demands. If they have not demanded payment legally, you should remind them of their duty to do so.

If they ignore you, and continue to demand payments illegally or demand ground rent and admin payments which are not due, write a further letter clearly repeating that you dispute the demands, and that you consider their treatment of you to be in breach of dispute and debt collection procedures, and that it amounts to harassment.

After that you can report them for abuse (eg OFT, Housing Ombudsman etc), and/or take them to court/tribunal and seek a judgement which will surely be in your favour - and you may well find that the judgement extends to compensation.

she_mac

In our case they are demanding over £300 from each flat for buildings insurance. Hideous. We're taking action.

susiebliss

i have dealings with this HORRID company ' Freehold managers plc"

I pay £150 a year to them as i own an apartment in chester but still have to pay this to them as the apartments sit on there land????

susiebliss

that happened to all our apartments, freehold tried to demand building insurance from each flat. so our management company told them all the apartments already pay buliding ins
a rip off!!

susiebliss

gosh u dont own the same block of apartments as i do in chester??

this company tried that on with me and like you say its sorted now.

But they are rude and a nasty company!!