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Problem with Leasehold agreement
Rob_XT
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hi,
I've got a bit of a sticky situation. Back in 2007 we made an offer on a leasehold flat run by a management company set up by the local council. At the time it was discovered by our solicitors that there were some major works bills outstanding which the leaseholders hadn't invoiced to the then owner for works finished the year before (and consulations made the year before that). As such my solicitor arranged a retention of £18,500 as part of the agreement to purchase which would cover the expected cost.
Purchase was completed in April 2008 and we finally got the actual bill for the major works for the roof repair (£12k) in the following August year (the speed that this was done!). Fine, we were expecting it. I tried calling my solicitor, Fox Hayes, and was shocked to find out they had gone out of business. I did some checking and e-mailed a few people and found out that another solicitor had taken over their files. Checking with this solicitor and we found that they only retained the files and they wouldn't do anything with them or help in any way.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority suggested I speak to the other solicitors and sort out the matter between ourselves. I informed them and they finally agreed to send a cheque for the roof BUT said that they would not issue any more money from the retention and considered the matter closed as they said that they had agreed with our solicitors to impose a 1 year limit on the retention which we have never been informed of (and we were lucky to get anything). They also said they would release the balance to the seller.
Now we have a bill for the second part of the major works, a door entry system which is a total of around £650.00. This is about 3 years after it was completed and I don't know what to do about this. At the time we had the bill for the roof I told the seller's solicitor that there would be a further bill and I do not agree to the time limit but there doesn't appear to be anything I can do now. My solicitor is out of the picture, I can't seem to get the documents from the sale released to us and it seems we may have to pay this bill.
Do I have a case here or am I just going to have to swallow this? It seems crazy that we have to wait 3 years for invoices for works completed, I would have thought that the contractor would want to be paid immediately.:(
I've got a bit of a sticky situation. Back in 2007 we made an offer on a leasehold flat run by a management company set up by the local council. At the time it was discovered by our solicitors that there were some major works bills outstanding which the leaseholders hadn't invoiced to the then owner for works finished the year before (and consulations made the year before that). As such my solicitor arranged a retention of £18,500 as part of the agreement to purchase which would cover the expected cost.
Purchase was completed in April 2008 and we finally got the actual bill for the major works for the roof repair (£12k) in the following August year (the speed that this was done!). Fine, we were expecting it. I tried calling my solicitor, Fox Hayes, and was shocked to find out they had gone out of business. I did some checking and e-mailed a few people and found out that another solicitor had taken over their files. Checking with this solicitor and we found that they only retained the files and they wouldn't do anything with them or help in any way.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority suggested I speak to the other solicitors and sort out the matter between ourselves. I informed them and they finally agreed to send a cheque for the roof BUT said that they would not issue any more money from the retention and considered the matter closed as they said that they had agreed with our solicitors to impose a 1 year limit on the retention which we have never been informed of (and we were lucky to get anything). They also said they would release the balance to the seller.
Now we have a bill for the second part of the major works, a door entry system which is a total of around £650.00. This is about 3 years after it was completed and I don't know what to do about this. At the time we had the bill for the roof I told the seller's solicitor that there would be a further bill and I do not agree to the time limit but there doesn't appear to be anything I can do now. My solicitor is out of the picture, I can't seem to get the documents from the sale released to us and it seems we may have to pay this bill.
Do I have a case here or am I just going to have to swallow this? It seems crazy that we have to wait 3 years for invoices for works completed, I would have thought that the contractor would want to be paid immediately.:(
0
Comments
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so are you saying that a firm of solicitors has kept back £5,500 of your money ?0
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Hi,
No, the seller solicitor retained 18.5k of the money paid for the property to cover these major works but once the first bill came through for the roofing works the solicitor said they would pay this only and no other bills. This was not what was agreed as far as we were concerned and from what I had been sent from my (now gone) solicitor.
The seller solicitor is therefore releasing the remaining retention (I presume this has already happened).0
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