hate natwest....

th2rec

Hi all
i'm sorry this is going to be a long one, but i really need a bit of advice...

in 2004 i bought my home and natwest carried out the survey as i got my mortgage through them (bad move)
anywho they carried out the survey and nowhere on it did it state my home was leasehold.
in 2009 i receive a letter from an estates mgmt demanding me to pay over 3hundred pound in arears on ground rent, 5yrs after i had bought and lived in my home.
i contacted them straight away an made them aware of what it stated on my survey and sent them a copy. i then hear nothing an presume it was just a mistake and dealt with.
then at the end of 2010 i receive a letter from estate mngt asking me for £50 in ground rent, 1st off i thought it was weird cause i'd not heard anything but also cause it was a diff amount to the last letter i'd received.
i contacted them AGAIN, told them the same thing and sent them the copy survey again, to which i heard nothing yet again.
i had to go away on personal business for a while and when i returned in August of this yr i had a letter from E,M demanding £80 and also a letter from a solicitor demanding i pay £314 in 10 days....i immediatley contacted them as it stated in the solicitor letter that i had repeatedly been asked for £190 and hadnt paid, not once had i been asked for £190, the other £124 is solicitor fees.
the solcitors sent me alot of paper work that i had never seen before, including a request to Natwest in 2009 for over 3hundred pounds, which Natwest paid...i had no idea this had happened as neither Natwest or E,M had contacted me to tell me this, hence me presuming it had been dealt with in 2009.

i contacted Natwest asking what the stat was on my house and why on the survey did it state my home was freehold.
1stly they replied saying they could not view the survey (how convenient) and tried fobbing me off saying i should pay rent etc.
i happily faxed them a copy of the survey as proof, they have since repplied basically saying sorry but its not our problem that your being taken to court and we should have been told all this upon purchase of our home.....isnt that what we paid the survey for?? so it should be them that told us this.
i am extremely angry at this response and am not accepting it, it is their fault they have provided incorrect info on my survey and i have contested E,M for the last 2years, but to then find out that Natwest had actually paid arrears and i hadn been informed is even worse.
their response to that was they paid the arrears to protect their own security. what does that even mean?

any advice would be grately appreciated before i reply.

many thanks..

System

I think you are blaming the wrong people.

It is your solicitor's (conveyancer) responsibility to confirm if the property is leashold or freehold and to let you know any charges payable etc.

jen245

I take it you did not read your contract before you purchased your property? All property management fees/ground rent liability will have been laid out in your contract, which is your solicitor's responsibilty to draft, and your responsibilty to read. Its nothing to do with Natwest, they just provided your mortgage.

silvercar

Firstly surveyors examine the building and check it is structurally sound. It is for your solicitor to check the paperwork and the leasehold or freehold status. Your solicitor must have known it was leasehold as he would have had to register your "ownership" of the lease with the freeholder. If or how he made this clear to you in the papers that you signed I have no idea.

Secondly, you may get more advice if you post on the housing board, some solicitors hang out there.

silvercar

NatWest would have paid the arrears to protect their own security as there is the serious risk that your lease contains terms that the lease is forfeited if you fail to make the payments. If this happened the mortgage security is gone and so NatWest have a duty to protect themselves - this will be in the mortgage terms.

chambta

Easy to blame the bank isn't it? I'm afraid Natwest have done absolutely nothing wrong and were completely right to deflect the blame from themselves.

You need to have the conversation with the legal firm you employed and paid to act for you in the purchase.