Ground Rent

Kirsteen1

Hi,

I recently sent payment to my maintenance company for insurance, ground rent and maintenance.

I sent this payment as 1 cheque, but also sent a letter and email to the maintenance company stating what the payments was for.

They have recently sent me an email saying that I have not made a payment for ground rent. I have checked my bank account and the cheque has been cashed.

Can they recharge me for money I have paid?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Kirsteen

Fire_Fox

Our management company have separate accounts for service charges, ground rent and insurance - yours might be the same so your money has probably got assigned to the wrong account. If you are invoiced separately it's best to pay separately: have you contacted them to clarify the situation?

continualdiamond

Second with the management company having separate accounts. I have 2, ground rent and buildings insurance, where told in our letter to send 2 payments, one for each account.

Can you not pay online? Mine used to only accept cheques, i don't have a cheque book so provided very annoying, got round it though. Was a relief when they introduced payments online, i just sign in with my reference # to my property and shows my 2 separate accounts.

Kirsteen1

I have contacted them to clarify to only get a nasty email. I also asked for breakdown of payments that I have sent, which they will not provide.

Im really stuck. This maintenance company is uncontactable by phone... myself and others have tried on numerous occassions, and only accept payment by cheque.

On several occassions they have not cashed cheques and it has cost me money to continually stop them and resend the money. This is why I have begun to send payments as one cheque.

Any ideas?

Fire_Fox

I send more than one cheque in the same envelope with a covering letter by recorded delivery so I have a record of exactly what was paid and when. You should be dealing with the freeholder/ management company in writing not by e-mail or telephone. If they do not cash a cheque that you can prove was received that is their lookout! If you wish to combine cheques I suggest you combine two quarterly or two monthly cheques for the service charges, not combine one account with another.

You have the legal right to request a summary of accounts for the previous accounting year which should include payments received. This must be requested formally i.e. in writing, I find it helpful to quote the legislation with a difficult management company: http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=14

Kirsteen1

Thanks for the tip!