Problems with Management Company.

qwertinatom

dave82 wrote: »

Call them up and tell them that king in 1066 owed the peasent that lived on this land 10 groats. Now you live in the flat you demand the debt be settled and that with interest since 1066 they owe you 86 million pounds.

Because to me that's how fn stupid they are being!

This is one reason I refuse to live in a flat!!!

Haha I like this response a lot! I have a feeling that this is going to end up in court.

dave82_2

P.S. Also ask them for a breakdown of their accounts showing how it cost them £25 to send you a letter!!! Tell them they owe me £2.56 for my advice.

dave82_2

P.P.S can I represent you in court?* I think it would be fun.

* I am not a qualified solicitor but I do have a swimming badge and cycling proficiency certificate.

themull1

This happened to my brother when he moved to Edinburgh in a tenement block, he didnt pay because he hadnt owned the property at the time the works were carried out, this demand was from the council, so his solicitor replied, and he didnt pay anything.

keystone

They may well be within their rights if the terms of the lease allow for the new leasholder taking on the obligations and liabilities of the previous leaseholder. I should check your leasehold documentation very, very carefully if I were you.

Doesn't mean they are not being a bunch of a.....les though!

Cheers

PoppyHoppy

Keystone may well be right that there's some kind of awful clause in your leasehold where you inherit but your solicitor would have spotted this one would hope.
Personally, I would write to them to say that you are terminating communication as you believe this is escalating to harassment, you have co-operated since February to no avail, it's causing you a great deal of stress and provide your solicitor's contact details.
I'm by no means an expert in this field but currently having issues with my managing agent regarding damp that they're claiming is condensation.
Best of luck with it.

qwertinatom

I'm going to be having a chat with my Solicitor about it today. Its the fact that a mistake on their behalf started all this that really irks me.

Thank you for all your suggestions, I'll ask my solicitor about the terms of my lease when I speak to him.

sooz

Please look at https://www.lease-advice.org
You can call their helpline too.

If the bills have been sent to you in the correct format ( see lease advice for format) you will owe the original bill. When you buy a lease you also buy all the debts with that lease.

Now, as to the extra charges, it depends what it says in your lease as to what the management company can charge to send lettered, interest etc.

You may have a case against the solicitor who did the conveyancing when you bought the flat, but the money for the original bill is owed to the management company regardless.

dave82_2

sooz wrote: »

Please look at www.lease-advice.org
You can call their helpline too.

If the bills have been sent to you in the correct format ( see lease advice for format) you will owe the original bill. When you buy a lease you also buy all the debts with that lease.

Now, as to the extra charges, it depends what it says in your lease as to what the management company can charge to send lettered, interest etc.

You may have a case against the solicitor who did the conveyancing when you bought the flat, but the money for the original bill is owed to the management company regardless.

This may (outragously in my opinion) be true however. Surely when you buy the lease these debts have to be transparant to the buyer. Not debts that occur because the management company made an error!!

Otherwise I could buy a flat, get a mate to start a management company run up £250k of debt from the flat to the management company. Sell the flat without disclosing the debt then my mate could claim £250k from the new owners. All I would have to do is get my mate to send me 10k letters @ £25 a pop and this would all be fine?

Fight them all the way. Fell free to use my examples in court

sooz

Great plan - when shall we start?



If the error had been against another flat, the OP would have been sent a cheque to refund the overpayment. Would they complain about it then?

The error doesn't show great management abilities, but atleast they seem to have discovered it & attempted to correct it in the same financial year.

I don't agree with the backdated charging or the late fees added on, but feel the OP should further look into the matter. Simply saying it was before they bought the lease is not the answer, as debts do transfer to the new leaseholder.