URGENT HELP needed on this please!

emsikins

Thanks glottalstop. Seems quite positive. It's frustrating because it's not like we haven't received invoices. We've been paying the estate charges on time with no problem as we have been receiving invoices for that for three years. For some reason the company split the account into two. This means while we've been paying one charge, the estate charge, for three years and assumed all is in order as we had continued to receive quarterly statement there's been additional invoices for an additional charge being sent elsewhere. As we've been receiving paperwork and had nothing to indicate the charges had been separated to two accounts we had no reason to query it. It's interesting that the invoices were going to a wrong address but the solicitors letter was addressed right though!

We are waiting to hear back at the moment, the solicitors have been asked not to proceed until they hear otherwise and the management company are looking into it further. It's not the payments we're arguing against, just that it seems unreasonable to expect us to pay off such a large fee in such a shor time when they failed to get in touch with is before now regarding it. If I owned the company, had been sending quarterly statements and still not been paid I'd have looked into it much sooner than 3 years later!

MarieMc

emsikins wrote: »

It's interesting that the invoices were going to a wrong address but the solicitors letter was addressed right though!

You should point this out to them, I'd love to hear what they've got to say about that

Fire_Fox

emsikins wrote: »

Our lease has always been to pay in quarterly installment as the statement from three years ago which we've only just received states. We aren't disputing that it's owing and we are happy to pay. The inability doesn't lie in the fact that we couldn't pay it at the time they requested it, it's that we can't pay 3 years worth of charges in less than a year. Does this argument hold no weight? Surely the fact that it's their clerical error that's held off payment must count for something?

Please don't get me wrong here, I have every sympathy with your situation but I am purely looking at the legal position as I understand it. IMO the legislation in general is reasonable, and there is protection for people not being backbilled a crippling amount.There is no mileage in thinking what you deem reasonable, you need to be looking at what is lawful.

If service charges are not correctly billed they are simply not due; once they are billed the law does NOT give you the right to pay by installments instead it gives you the right to only pay the last eighteen months. If you give up that right by accepting the arrears you will then be obliged to pay in full. What you should remember is that this is not only their error, you should have been told at the time of purchase how much the service charges were and arguably you should have noticed the missing invoices.

emsikins wrote: »

We are waiting to hear back at the moment, the solicitors have been asked not to proceed until they hear otherwise and the management company are looking into it further. It's not the payments we're arguing against, just that it seems unreasonable to expect us to pay off such a large fee in such a shor time when they failed to get in touch with is before now regarding it. If I owned the company, had been sending quarterly statements and still not been paid I'd have looked into it much sooner than 3 years later!

Have you formally accepted you owe the money yet? Are you now dealing with this in writing?