Do I owe solicitor these fee's?

chrispyphillips

I have just received a letter from my solicitor relating to £240 i owe them for 'apportionment fee's' on a property i bought in November. It is an appartment which is lease hold, and a company is contracted for 'ground rent' charges such as maintenance etc which the residents are responsible for.

The solicitor has obviously paid them the £240 for me, but the first i ever heard of it was a letter from them saying I owed them this money, and without my payment they will be "unable to effect registration formalities at the land registry until this amount is paid. If registration formalities are not affected then you will not be the registered owners of the property."

I have rung them twice today and the solicitor dealing is not available or returning my calls. It all sounds a bit sketchy to me, but may be legit, I'm not sure.

Anyone able to help on this front? I naturally need to 'own' the property, but am wondering if this payment was perhaps a hindsight by them, and they are liable for the payment but are trying to scare me into paying the money to them. I have to pay the maintenance company eventually anyway, but do I have to pay this to the solicitors, and can they start legal actions gainst me should i fail to pay?

Thanks in advance

Chris

roger56

On lease hold, you normally have some sort of ground rent (even if peppercorn) and shared maintenance charges.
Sounds like the yearly amount has been apportioned to you for the period from your date of purchase to the date the next yearly maintenance charge
is due. This is normal for a lease hold property and is for you to pay, not your solicitor.

Note also you lease the property. At the end of the lease it reverts to the freeholder.

This may help:
http://www.lease-advice.org/livingmain.htm

chrispyphillips

Thanks Roger, but the question still remains, do I owe the solicitors the £240 fees they paid on my behalf or should i not pay these fee's as they failed to mention them, and paid them without my knowledge or consent to them. Am i being forced to pay them the fee's when they shouldnt have paid them in the first place, and should have left it to me!?

rosysparkle

You have to pay this sum. Whether you pay it to the solicitors or directly to the management company seems immaterial to me, you pay the same amount either way.

As the solicitors have settled it already, as part of the purchase of the property (it is normal procedure for them to do this), it would be simpler to pay it to them.

roger56

chrispyphillips wrote:

Thanks Roger, but the question still remains, do I owe the solicitors the £240 fees they paid on my behalf or should i not pay these fee's as they failed to mention them, and paid them without my knowledge or consent to them. Am i being forced to pay them the fee's when they shouldnt have paid them in the first place, and should have left it to me!?

I'd say yes you have to pay them but I'm not as legal expert. I'll explain:

My flat Leasehold papers state
"The tenant covenants.....
to pay the basic rent on xx of each year
to pay the service charge calculated iaw 3rd schedule
to pay interest on any service charge paid more than seven days after it fall due"

So by signing the Leasehold papers (at your solicitors presumably) you agree to pay such charges. I'd also suggest that your solicitor has done you a favour in paying the fee, since it most likely falls due on the date of completion. Seven days later and not paid and you would have had to pay interest on the sum due.

I'd read your own Leasehold papers carefully, they may well contain some other seemingly onerous clauses. A Leasehold is very different to a freehold. I don't like them but most flats are leasehold.

Hope that helps, maybe a Legal eagle will fly past and be more definative.:T

Bossyboots

This sum should have been included on your completion statement but for whatever reason it has only just come to light. This could have been an error by your solicitor in not putting it on the statement or your seller's solicitor in not notifying the figures. Your seller will have paid the fees up front at the start of the billing year and you have to repay the sum due from completion to the end of the billing year.

However the delay has come about, it is your responsibility to pay this and you should be grateful if your solicitors did it for you. They were not obliged to and could have left the seller to chase you direct. If they have paid it for you, they can indeed start court proceedings against you which simply means you will owe them more.

In addition to all this, you may well be in breach of your mortgage by the delay in registration.