Management Agency to start legal proceedings against me

hk012e3119

Hi guys,

A newbie here, i read a lot of the posts but never post myself. I need some advice so, here i am.

I bought a flat last july, as part of the purchase i had to pay an apportionment of the ground rent and the management fees.

the management fees are paid twice a year, £250 in september and £250 in march.

So i paid the £100 and something pounds till sept 06. Now the management agency keep sending bills for sept 06 til feb 06 (£250) to my address in the wrong name and not my name.

So on the first of feb i sent a recorded letter to the management people and said the MR A N Other doesnt live here anymore from 01/02/2007.

My wife just text me and said the management agency have sent a letter to say if we dont pay the £250 in the next 7 days they will start legal proceedings.

i suppose i have to pay the £250 as i own the flat, i have bought it but its on a lease hold.

Now the thing is that these flats all have there own enterances, think of it like a massive house with 4 seperate enterances, 2 downstairs and 2 upstairs.

I dont know what the £250 every 6 months covers.

IF i write a letter to them asking what work they do for the £250 will they tell me or say pay up or we are going to start legal proceedings against you?

i have been living there since sept 06 as thats when i have moved in, i dont mind paying the money as its in the contract BUT;

a) i dont know what they do?
b) i havent seen them do any work.
c) we have a litter/rubish problem that hasnt been addressed
d) we have a vermin/roedent problem that hasnt been addressed.

Q. What shall i do next? please help.

p.s. from other neighbours/flat owners i have heard the manahgemnt agency are a bit useless (theyre bound to be biased tho in all fairness).

prudryden

I think I would pay the money due first. Then write them a letter asking for details of the management contract and what does it actually cover.

Chances are, it goes into a holding account to be used when necessary for such things as gutters, drains, roofing repairs, painting, gardening etc.

Doozergirl

It will cover building insurance and that is probably half of the bill.

You need to pay them as you agreed to do that when you bought the place.

I hope you've contacted regarding the outstanding issues as there's nothing they can do if you haven't told them!

There is something called the Right To Manage, which allows you to take control of the management of your building. With only four flats, if you can agree to go ahead (our block jumped at it) it costs £125 each to pay a company to organise iot for you and takes about 5 months to come through. In the meantime, you need to continue to pay the managing agent.

Information here: http://www.lease-advice.org/rtmframe.htm

And I started a thread somewhere, I'll try to find it for you...

hk012e3119

thanks for the info guys.

Doozergirl

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=271485

Richard_Webster

Go back to the solicitor who acted for you when you bought and ask him to explain the position to you.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

hk012e3119

I think i better pay the bill and follow it up with a letter, however talking to other neighbours/flat owners, they say you never hear from then only when they want to collect the money.

I just dont want to pay and then when i write i find out they dont care and dont reply

hk012e3119

Richard_Webster wrote:

Go back to the solicitor who acted for you when you bought and ask him to explain the position to you.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

what do you mean by explain the position?

Richard_Webster

Before you exchanged contracts your solicitors should have been given some accounts from the landlord showing the amount of annual service charge and the amount then owing by the seller to the Landlord.

Did your solrs give you copies of recent maintenance charge statements showing how much the seller paid over the past few years and how the service charge was broken down between insurance, repairs, gardening, etc.?
Was there anything from the landlord saying it was proposing to do some major work and the bills would be sent out shortly?

Basically you need to find out how long this £5,000 has been outstanding and how it is calculated.

If the amount was £5,000 then that is a lot of money for a service/maintenance charge so it is likely
(a) it represents several years arrears (which your solicitor should have been told about) or
(b) the landlord decided to charge everyone in the block for some major repairs and the bill got sent after the accounts your solicitors saw had been provided to the sellers solicitors.

If it is a) then your solicitors should have seen this before and required the sellers solicitors to discharge the liability in full as a condition of completion.

If it is b) then your solicitors should have covered this point by making sure that either they saw a completely up to date statement from the landlord (not one a month or two old without the latest charge on it) when they completed or got a binding undertaking from the seller's solrs to pay all arrears (which means it would be up to the seller's solrs to satisfy themselves as to how much this was.) If the seller's solrs gave that undertaking they would be stuck with paying the £5,000! Looks as if they didn't.

If your solrs knew about the £5,000 then they should have told you about it. If they didn't they should have covered your back by making sure that the seller's solrs paid everything due. If you had to pay an "apportionment" of the service charge on completion then this figure must have come from somewhere. Was it a proportion of £5,000 - or much more likely of a smaller sum?

I suspect your solr may be at fault in not making completely sure that the £5,000 was paid. That's why I am susggesting that you ask for an explanation - step by step - what the seller's solr told him, copies of all the relevant papers etc.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

hk012e3119

thanks for the answer, i think youre mixing my post with a previous post, all info appreciated dude.

cheers