Charged late payment for an invoice I did not receive

bigpat

I know I’m not supposed to give you a great long saga, but the following has been ongoing for several months now and I have boiled it down to as few bullet points as I can.

I pay service charges on my flat, £287 every six months. At my previous address this was via standing order, but at this flat the company prefer to send invoices. I've been here about 4 years and have paid every invoice promptly on receipt, in May and November. Last Nov. no invoice arrived

24/01: Received letter saying account was in arrears and a penalty of £120+VAT would be charged if I did not pay within 7 days. Letter was dated 7th Jan.

25/01: Called office to confirm bank details and paid usual amount through internet banking. Was told penalty had already been applied. I asked whether I could pay by standing order in future.

30/01: Email reply from company saying No, I need to wait for invoices as amount may differ each time. Was told I needed to put matter in writing to Regional Manager.

01/02: Did so. Explained reasonably and calmly what had happened and asked if they would reverse the charge as it was not my fault and i had no intention of delaying payment.

Early Feb: I phoned office three times but Regional Manager was never available and never once called me back.

14/02: Reply from Regional Manager saying he had confirmation invoice had been delivered on 3rd Dec. (He may have internal confirmation that they were posted on that date, but mine never arrived. To date, it still hasn’t!) He refused to waive the penalty as they had incurred extra work in chasing me. Letter was copied to me via email as well as posted.

14/02: I replied same day, stating my case again. It was not my fault that invoice was not received and if I had sent a cheque and it was lost, they wouldn’t have accepted responsibility for that. Asked again for charge to be waived. Gave my mobile number and said I would like opportunity to speak to him on the phone.

Never got a reply.

03/05: Next invoice received. Usual sum, plus penalty charge still on account

06/05: Usual amount paid via internet banking. Emailed company to inform them I still disputed charges and had not ha d a reply to my last letter

07/05: Email reply to say charges are due every May and November and I should have paid. (Remember that reply on 30/01 though!)

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So where does this leave me? What’s the legal situation? Are they allowed to impose these charges for something outside of my control when they have specifically told me not to pay until I receive an invoice? If I send them a cheque which becomes lost and I need to send a replacement, can I charge them a penalty of £120+VAT?

I’d be really grateful for some advice.

antrobus

What does it say in the lease? Management companies can't just decide willy-nilly to levy late payment charges unless they're actually specificed in the lease, and any charge that they do levy has to be 'reasonable' -

The reasonable bit comes from Schedule 11 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/schedule/11. But it looks like you should already know that, because Schedule 11 states that any such demand "must be accompanied by a summary of the rights and obligations of tenants of dwellings in relation to administration charges". Presumably you don't because the management company didn't tell you, which is rather odd because the failure to do so apparently means that you're (a) entitled to withhold payment and (b) invalidates any provision in the lease requiring you to pay it.

Of course you might want to confirm that sort of thing with a real lawyer.

arcon5

If you pay every May and November, did it not occur to you long before January that something was up?

ThumbRemote

arcon5 wrote: »

If you pay every May and November, did it not occur to you long before January that something was up?

Do you remember every date that everything is due? Do you know the exact date that your car and house insurances are due?

Most people when paying bills like this rely on the reminders to know it's due, rightly or wrongly.

Fosterdog

Have you checked with the residents of the other flats whether they have had the same charges added?

If they've done it to others too then you will have a good case. If everyone else received theirs it's highly unlikely you were singled out to not send an invoice to and it probably got lost in the post.

If it got as far as small claims court then if they can prove they send out 30 invoices and 29 were received and yours wasn't on the balance of probabilities it would go in their favour. If they sent 30 and only 20 were received then there is some doubt and you would have a stronger case.

halibut2209

I would ask for a breakdown of this £120+VAT

A company is NOT allowed to impose a penalty on anyone

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

halibut2209 wrote: »

I would ask for a breakdown of this £120+VAT

A company is NOT allowed to impose a penalty on anyone

This is correct, just pay what is due for the service and tell them to take you to court for the £120 where they'd need to demonstrate it was a pre-estimation of loss (can't see how sending you a payment reminder would cost 120 quid), if you have any paperwork at all, including the original agreement, mentioning the word penalty they don't have a leg to stand on.

halibut2209

They would also have a duty to minimise their losses. It's hard to see how that would be more than the cost of sending a couple of letters

arcon5

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Do you remember every date that everything is due? Do you know the exact date that your car and house insurances are due?

Most people when paying bills like this rely on the reminders to know it's due, rightly or wrongly.

Yes I do actually.

But no I don't remember every due date - but when it comes to primary bills such as rent, council tax and service charge if applicable - I most certainly make sure I know when they are due and ensure they are paid.

System

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Do you remember every date that everything is due? Do you know the exact date that your car and house insurances are due?

Most people when paying bills like this rely on the reminders to know it's due, rightly or wrongly.

So you don't know the dates when you are expected to hand over considerable sums of money? That seems very reckless financial planning!

ThumbRemote

goater78 wrote: »

So you don't know the dates when you are expected to hand over considerable sums of money? That seems very reckless financial planning!

I have absolutely no idea when the car tax or any insurances are due.

Thanks for your concern, but there's no problem covering the cost when they are due.