Freehold Manager requesting consent to Sublet

rusty1258

I recently contacted Freehold Managers to ask for a letter of consent to let as I was required to provide it for my Mortgage company. I struggled to get hold of anyone in ths company but when did I was told it would be sent out in the post to me .(Seemed abit too easy ).When I received it , it was an application form for me to apply in writing for consent and pay £220 for a standard application ,(with a charge of £139 each time I had a change of tenant) which had to be returned with full payment in 14days! I tried to call them but the office was supposedly closed for 2 days to install a new database.The website was under construction so no emails were received either!

I finally got thru to someone and explained I had shown this application for consent to a solicitor and I was informed this was not a legal charge and there was nothing in my lease to say I needed to gain consent prior to letting.
The woman said she would order my lease so she could look at it and then she would scan it to me to show where the charges were detailed. said I wanted an answer by the end of the day or would pass the whole thing to my solicitor to deal with .
I queried this as if they had not already checked my lease , they would not know what was in it and therefore would have no right to try and charge me for these fees?The woman brushed over this and said she would check it and email me back.
Surprisingly 10 minutes before the end of the day , I received an email to say , they had now checked my lease and there was no clause in it to pay for consent to let!! so I saved my self £220 plus £139 each time there was a change in tenant...
Then I received an email to say if my mortgage company required a simple letter to this effect , there would be a charge of £95.00.

Please be aware , this company is dogdy and will try anything to extract monies from you , over this matter. Challenge and it will go away and you will save quite abit of money per year!

anniebea

This company as much as admitted to me that they send out a request when the address for correspondance doesnt match the property address. They dont check your lease first.

If you get a demand for consent to sublet check your lease and if there is no requirement in your lease tell them so.

Ulfar

Does your lease prohibit subletting and mention that consent to let has to be gained, if not advise your mortgage lender of this.

Advise that if they require confirmation you can supply a copy of the lease.

kawookey

yes they do the same to us, wanted £200 per property per year (I have 4 properties), and £95 per change of tenant, plus they wanted copies of our tenancy agreement.

I refused to pay, they appologiesed saying it was sent in error. now I have sent them an invioce, for my solicitors time I am tempted to inform the LTV of their behaviour also trading standards, most of their letters carry threats like if the service charge account is not up to date they will not give permission.

Not a nice bunch of people.

ihatefreeholdmangers

Kawookey - have Freehold Managers replied to you yet.
I have received similar requests for payment for permission to sublet. When I fought them off on that point they accepted that consent was not needed and asked for a notice fee instead.
I don't think that is even warranted under the terms of the lease.
Have you or anyone else been asked for a notice fee and how have you faired?

propertyman

ihatefreeholdmangers wrote: »

Kawookey - have Freehold Managers replied to you yet.
I have received similar requests for payment for permission to sublet. When I fought them off on that point they accepted that consent was not needed and asked for a notice fee instead.
I don't think that is even warranted under the terms of the lease.
Have you or anyone else been asked for a notice fee and how have you faired?

The important thing to remember is that you must always go to your lease and see what it, not the Agents/landlord, says ( or try to tell you what it says).

They are not all the same, some may need no consent or notice and some detailed licences and deeds, all of which we should be aware of from your solicitors report when we purchased it.

Ulfar

If you don't need consent to let, why would you pay a fee. It is madness at best and pure deception by the company at worst.

For anybody dealing with this company or one like it, check your lease, if you don't need consent to let do not pay any fees, if you do only pay the fees detailed in the lease.

Any communication with them should be in writing, sent recorded delivery. Insist on written replies, if necessary include a stamped addressed envelope.

Just to give some background, I was one of the directors of the residents association who held the freehold for the development for my last flat. We employed a managing company to manage the property. This sort of thing came up all the time, as the company would try these spurious charges and then residents would come talk to us as residents/directors.

Not one of these charges was ever upheld or made, we as directors had to take a very firm line with the company. They even tried to charge me for information my solicitor wanted when I sold my property, needless to say they didn't get paid and they did provide the information.

propertyman

Reasonable fees are due as there is work to do in maintaining records and landlords and agents are entitled to be reimbursed for the time it takes for them to maintain records as a result of someone else's actions.

When self managing or having your own agent those fees are still due however it is perfectly acceptable to accept that those costs are taking into account as part of the over all fee and not a separate charge.

So once again there is no hard and fast rule.

ihatefreeholdmangers

Thanks for your replies.
The point that I have made to them is that the lease suggests for some things a fee of £25 is payable to their solicitors.
When asked if they are solicitors they said they have an in house lawyer but have refused top give their name.
They also want to charge £95.
It just seems that they are trying to grab money any way they can and frankly I just don't think they behave correctly.
How much work can really be involved in updating a database. 15 minutes work for a data inputer who they may pay £10 per hour? £95 is just ridiculous.

propertyman

ihatefreeholdmangers wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.
The point that I have made to them is that the lease suggests for some things a fee of £25 is payable to their solicitors.
When asked if they are solicitors they said they have an in house lawyer but have refused top give their name.
They also want to charge £95.
It just seems that they are trying to grab money any way they can and frankly I just don't think they behave correctly.
How much work can really be involved in updating a database. 15 minutes work for a data inputer who they may pay £10 per hour? £95 is just ridiculous.

Well 15 minutes ok, but add the time to check the lease to see if only notice is what is required, and that there are no other breaches which require the notice to be returned. Add the ancillary time of the staff opening and distributing the post, and then sending it back.

But it is not what they are paid, it's what they cost. Staff cost taking into account premises and overheads you can roughly double that wage, add a little profit, and the VAT, and rapidly £30 to £35 is a reasonable sum for notice. Independent studies have shown that the average business will cost them £25 to process and sending a letter on routine administrative issues.

When asaking for £95 that is something that is usually for something very different normally a consent or licence.

Yes some landlords and agents abuse the situation but don't assume that it costs peanuts and that there is only one charge in the lease.