excessive landlord's notice fee months after completion date

sobre44

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your help.

I have spoken to the freeholders and they break down the fee as a Notice of Assignment fee of "not less that £150+vat" and a Mortgage Notice fee of "not less that £150+vat". They have said this is in the lease but I doubt it was in the paperwork that my solicitor talked me through page by page.

It seems that there was some kind of miscommunication between the freehold managers and my solicitors but nothing underhand-although I still feel that the fees are excessive.

Anyway it turns out that my solicitors have paid the fee from their own money initially to get things finally sorted out. I have been kindly told that they will not chase me for the money and I can pay them when I can. So I have sent half this month and will pay the remaining half mext month.

I am happy with my solicitor and happy enough with the situation although I think that there should be stricter guidelines regarding how much leaseholders have to pay for this kind of thing.

Thanks again.


J

MegaMiniMouse

sobre44 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your help.

I have spoken to the freeholders and they break down the fee as a Notice of Assignment fee of "not less that £150+vat" and a Mortgage Notice fee of "not less that £150+vat". They have said this is in the lease but I doubt it was in the paperwork that my solicitor talked me through page by page.

It seems that there was some kind of miscommunication between the freehold managers and my solicitors but nothing underhand-although I still feel that the fees are excessive.

Anyway it turns out that my solicitors have paid the fee from their own money initially to get things finally sorted out. I have been kindly told that they will not chase me for the money and I can pay them when I can. So I have sent half this month and will pay the remaining half mext month.

I am happy with my solicitor and happy enough with the situation although I think that there should be stricter guidelines regarding how much leaseholders have to pay for this kind of thing.

Thanks again.


J

Again, sorry to be a bore, but solicitors are paid precisely to read paper carefully (only they can understand it, and they are at pains to keep it that way...), and to explain the contents to their clients

Their 'flexilibility' over the payment of the £368 is a fairly good indication of their their desire to avoid a compaint against them

MMM

sobre44

Hi MMM,

You might be right but the lady did seem to be a very honourable and professional person throughout the process. It could be that there was some genuine miscommunication between the freehold company and the solicitor. Remember this was via the management agents also. Anyway at least it is only a one off payment. No need to apologise-you are not been a bore at all-thanks for you help.

J

MegaMiniMouse

sobre44 wrote: »

Hi MMM,

You might be right but the lady did seem to be a very honourable and professional person throughout the process. It could be that there was some genuine miscommunication between the freehold company and the solicitor. Remember this was via the management agents also. Anyway at least it is only a one off payment. No need to apologise-you are not been a bore at all-thanks for you help.

J

Yes, but solicitors are paid to communicate properly in their specialised field - miscommunication is not your problem!

I would withhold the second instalment, and if/when they get in touch, I would say that I am considering making a complaint - I betcha never hear from them again...

MMM

sobre44

I just can't bring myself to do that-so my loss maybe. You do make some fair points though, cheers,

J

££sc££

Good things are sorted. If this wording is in the lease then the solicitor should have been aware earlier, but I guess it wouldn't have made any difference to you, you still would have had to pay it, you would have just known about it earlier. Worth bearing in mind that the fee is quite high for both, so if you ever come to remortgage include the no less than £150 plus VAT in your calculations

Richard_Webster

I suspect what has happened here is that the responsibilities for maintenance insurance etc are divided between a Managing agent, from whom the solicitor got some information, and Freehold Managers who perhaps just collect ground rent but still want a notice of assignment/and or to give a certificate of compliance to allow registration to proceed.

If the solicitor had not encountered this splitting of responsibilities before then she might reasonably have assumed that only one such fee was payable to the managing agent. It is now becoming quite a business with some developments to have more than one company to contend with, sometimes in the same group.

So I have clients selling a house on a private road at the moment which is looked after by Peverel who give details of the service charge but the notice of transfer has to be sent to Estates & Management (who are part of the same group). The buyer's solicitor was amazed at the notice of transfer fee of £190!

I won't comment on the level of charges in this case.

MegaMiniMouse

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If the solicitor had not encountered this splitting of responsibilities before then she might reasonably have assumed.....

Solicitors are paid to know, or find out, the facts! Assumptions are not acceptable, reasonable or otherwise

MMM

glottalstop

This becomes much clearer when you identify that Freehold Managers are behind it. Search this forum about them, and you will get a wider picture of what you are likely to have to deal with in future. Also, search the database on LEASE (www.lease-advice.org) to see what has been decided about unreasonable "admin fees" and about Freehold Managers (and sister company Estates & Management) in other cases.

Not only are they ripping you off, and holding you to ransom by withholding the registration of transfer of title, but I would bet they also charged chunky "admin fees" to the seller.

Most people who have dealt with Freehold Managers would be surprised to hear that you have found someone polite to deal with.

From the sound of it your solictor is recommending you pay (a fee is therefore due - has he confirmed this from the lease ?) but he and most others think that the fee is unreasonably high. For the sake of your title registration this is perhaps the safest way forward, but you might want to:

a) try and negotiate a more reasonable amount (the actual work involved is probably no more than £100) if you really have found someone at FM prepared to talk sense;

b) pay stating that it is under protest, and seek retribution via the LVT who might well agree that the fees are unreasonable.

If I were you I would be closely studying the title and the management lease (who are the Managers ?) documents to see what other nasty charges might be coming your way, there seems to have been a wave of unreasonable charging by larger companies.

joem1619

I am currently selling my leasehold house. My Solicitor informs me that the people who collect the ground rent £8 a year want £195 because the house had a garage built on it . I've lived in the house 30 years & had to re-build the garage so I guess it was built originally shortly after the house was built in 1926. This to me seems totally unreasonable and a scam. How can I contest it.