Pass on Service Charge to Buyer?

Willapp_2

Just a quick question really. The house we're living in at the moment, and are in the process of selling (coming up to exchange of contracts fairly soon) has an annual service charge for upkeep of communal areas etc.

We've just received (today) a letter from the land management company requesting this year's service charge to be paid. It isn't a huge amount - about £120 IIRC.

Question is, given that we're likely to be moved within a month (fingers crossed), should we tell our solicitors of this charge and see if we can get our buyers to pay the full amount, or at least the vast majority. Obviously we don't want to upset our buyers at this delicate point, but firstly we've got very little spare cash at the moment so can't really afford to pay it all (we'll be quids in once the sale clears and we can get some of the equity). Also we feel validated in not wanting to pay it all, since it's supposed to be an upkeep charge for the whole year, and we're only going to be there a few more weeks.

Thoughts? I'm sure this seems picky to most, but we accepted a low-ish offer in order to get a quick sale. The buyer IS aware of the annual service charge, and as far as I know there hasn't been any mention so far of US paying it - it's just unfortunate that they collect the charge in January!

We're meeting our solicitor tomorrow anyway to sort out some paperwork, so will probably mention it to them, but I wonder what others thought?

Doozergirl

It's normal for the buyer to pay the pro-rata amount.

We just completed last week on a flat and our buyer has had to pay the pro-rata amounts for service charge and the £15 a year ground rent! I'd have let her off that :rolleyes:

Willapp_2

Excellent! That's what I wanted to hear really - worst news would've been that because its due now, we must pay it all. So if it's pro-rata'd then assuming we move in Feb, we can expect them to pay 5/6 of the total charge (10 month's worth - Feb to Dec)? We'll clarify this with our solicitors tomorrow just to make sure it isn't overlooked.

Doozergirl

You might have to pay it all to stop the management company causing any delays in the sale but you will get the 5/6 back.

Make sure you get a receipt and send it straight to your solicitor. Your buyer's solicitors will be asking for evidence of you being paid up . We asked the management company to send a copy of the receipt straight to our sols.

cattie

Generally I've found that you have to pay the service charge as & when due & the solicitor makes the adjustment for monies due to you from this on the completion statement.

Willapp_2

cattie wrote:

Generally I've found that you have to pay the service charge as & when due & the solicitor makes the adjustment for monies due to you from this on the completion statement.

Yep, you're absolutely right. In fact we've not paid the service charge at all - our solicitors just told us to bring in the invoice this morning (when we had to pop in anyway to show identification/present some other forms). They are going to work out what proportion of the charge we are due to pay, and pass the rest onto the buyer.