Previous unpaid service charges on property

Dreamchild

Hi all,

I've been a lurker on moneysavingexpert forums for a short while, but haven't had the chance to make any posts. Can anyone give me any advice on the following?

We bought our first property back in August 2010, we opted to pay for a bit more (£800) for conveyancing after hearing some bad feedback from some of our friends who used slightly unprofessional solicitors for much much cheaper.

After completing the contracts and moving in, we started receiving bills for service charge arrears from the previous homeowners. "No problem" said our solicitors, "We'll pass these on to the vendor's solicitors and they will be paid", and paid they were, so we were happy for a while.

Then we were hit with the end of year arrears bill, which is basically the managing agency realising they had a shortfall between billing the tenants each month for maintenance fee and the actual money which they spent, and this amount was quite significant. This was for the period directly before we moved in, but as the leasehold states, we were now responsible for all bills that are assigned to the property.

The problem is now that the vendors look like they don't want to pay this bill, and are deliberately being slow in responding through their solicitors and getting back to us. This is compounded by the fact that they have also emigrated to Australia, and therefore communications have been nigh impossible. I've been in communication a lot with my solicitors as to what we can do about it, and in the end their reply was "If the vendors don't want to pay, and they're not going to answer any communications, then there is very little we can do other than chase, chase and chase."

Are they right in that there is nothing I can do about this but man up, take the hit and pay the bill and take this as a lesson? This bill was issued about a month after we've moved in so our solicitors could have said "we checked at the point of sale and there was no bill, so we couldn't have seen this one coming".

Many thanks in advance for everyone's advice in what is quite a stressful moment.

BitterAndTwisted

it's your bill. Very bad luck that the managing agents don't appear to have done their budgeting properly. What's the reason for the actual spend being so much in excess of the forecast?

Dreamchild

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

it's your bill. Very bad luck that the managing agents don't appear to have done their budgeting properly. What's the reason for the actual spend being so much in excess of the forecast?

They didn't give one, I know that a lot of other tenants have complained and the managing agents have agreed to re-review the bill and if overcharged, will refund us at the end of this year.

But are our solicitors technically correct in saying that this couldn't be something that was foreseen at the point of sale and therefore there is no legal obligation from the previous homeowners to pay?

InkZ

I've just sold my flat, and had to agree to leave £350 with the solicitors as a retention in case any extra bills for my period came in.

Richard_Webster

This is a common issue. Whenever a client buys a flat he should be warned about the possibility of an excess charge arising and offered the opportunity to ask the seller to agree to some money being retained to cover the possible excess.

I tend to advise clients not to bother with this because of the hassle involved in administering it, but do make the issue very clear to them so that when they complete they realise this is a possible risk in the future and they do have option of insisting on a retention.

Did OP's solicitors not explain this point at all?

Chyna-s

InkZ wrote: »

I've just sold my flat, and had to agree to leave £350 with the solicitors as a retention in case any extra bills for my period came in.

Me too - will get the money back after 1 year if it has not been used for arrears (which it won't do because shortly before I sold it, I received an accounts review letter stating we had been overcharged and our account was £860 in credit!)