Beware of deceptive freeholders

Mrs_pbradley936

We own a flat which we let out and recently the freeholders set us a letter saying that under the terms of the lease we have to pay them £108 every time the tenancy changes.

Well it could well say that but I was not going to wade through pages to find out so I rang our solicitor and he advised me to ask them for the clause which said that. So I did and what do you know it does not say any such thing!

I would be curious as to how many people just pay up without checking. I very nearly did.

caeler

Cheeky freeholders! Well done for checking first!

DVardysShadow

When you put them to the challenge of identifying the clause, ask in writing and keep a copy. Sooner or later, enough people will put them to the test - at which I suspect they will never actually admit - but threaten court action. If they have not answered a reasonable question prior to taking the matter to court, you can get the answer as part of the pre hearing process. If you can show that you asked the question, you should be able to settle anything they prove and they will have to bear their own court costs.

Mrs_pbradley936

DVardysShadow wrote: »

When you put them to the challenge of identifying the clause, ask in writing and keep a copy. Sooner or later, enough people will put them to the test - at which I suspect they will never actually admit - but threaten court action. If they have not answered a reasonable question prior to taking the matter to court, you can get the answer as part of the pre hearing process. If you can show that you asked the question, you should be able to settle anything they prove and they will have to bear their own court costs.

I sent them an email and had an email in reply. It says that "they have reviewed the lease and that Notices and Charges are not applicable in our case, and they they have removed our name from the database and we should not be troubled further".

Mrs_pbradley936

I just had a thought - perhaps they added the clause recently due to all the buy to let businesses and we bought before the clause was in place. Is it usual to change leases for things like that?

propertyman

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

I just had a thought - perhaps they added the clause recently due to all the buy to let businesses and we bought before the clause was in place. Is it usual to change leases for things like that?

Sadly it is a revenue generating exercise. There is good reason for a landlord to be able to contact the owner, and a reasonable fee should be charged to cover that administration if the lease allows.

Too often agents look at the leaseholders non resident address and fire off such letters without looking at the lease, or as you suggest only one lease type in the scheme.

Paying them £108 is often cheaper than calling your lawyer and asking them to read the lease though!

If you are a BTL landlord then I suggest you get copy leases for your investments and work through each one so that you know whats what. I have all our client's leases on tabbed pdf files so its all to hand.