Ground Rent Arrears - Legal Proceedings - HELP

Alex_Joper

I had a similar problem with Tom Lowrey from JB Leitch claiming over £4000 for a fraudulent invoice by our management company. When I contested the letter they failed to respond. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. They use bully tactics to try and scare the residents into paying by using legal points which they beleive no one will understand. I suggest you look up the Summary of Rights and Obligations as well as the legal docs surrounding this case through the LVT. Lease Valuation Tribunal. - Contaact them and explain your case. They are great and will advise.

Managing agents and law firms do NOT always follow the law or work with ethics.

Also you have the right to contest any fee or legal costs.

If your management company has NOT provided you with a copy of the Summary of Rights and Obligations as pescribed by Parliament which is a legal document so important that even the type face and font has to be correct, you are NOT obliged to legally pay the service charge invoice.

Please look this law up.

Edward_Constant

I am in the process of reporting JB Leitch to Solicitors Regulation Authority for improper and dodgy practice. Although the SRA is a fairly toothless body, companies like them and Homeground should not be left to prey on people: in my case sending demands to a wrong address and then wrongly claiming that I received them, and attempting to charge me penalty fees for their mistake.

I completely agree with Alex Joper above re the use of bully tactics and do not act in an ethical or responsible manner.

sallying

I am going through the exact same problem with the exact ground rent company through JB leith, BRAM is my management company too. E&J has been sending bills to my previous address and since this is the first time I need to make a ground rent payment, I really don't know whom to contact and how to pay so I was waiting for them to send the bills but it never arrives. JB leith says it's my responsibility to update their client my address, therefore I need to pay £2400 to make a settlement. My problem is BRAM is not charging Ground Rent on my property and E&J is the freeholder from the beginning, so I am not sure if I will find a ground rent payment letter from BRAM to the right address which preceded the ground rent bill from E & J. Or maybe any letter from BRAM will do? I am really lost and tired and anxious, what should I do, please help!!!

leethepotter

Has anyone had any success with this?
I was billed for £895 a few months ago (which I had to pay despite the actual original debt only bring £225) and then today have received a FURTHER BILL for £545 for a £150 debt.

I don't live at the property and received no letter. Help.

skinnymat72

leethepotter wrote: »

Has anyone had any success with this?
I was billed for £895 a few months ago (which I had to pay despite the actual original debt only bring £225) and then today have received a FURTHER BILL for £545 for a £150 debt.

I don't live at the property and received no letter. Help.

I have exactly the same problem. I rent the property out and have received the same type of letter regarding ground rent. I sent a cheque for the ground rent amount £125 but they want another £436 in fees.
I have not received login in details to pay online so I sent them a letter saying that If they accepted the cheque it was for full and final payment but they have wrote back saying I still owe the fees.

Is this correct?
What's the next step as they say i have to pay within 7 days.

Any advice would be great. Thanks

skinnymat72

Furthermore to this yesterday I have just received this as a reply:

Dear Mr ****
With regards to your email below.
As per your request, please find enclosed the rent demand sent by Homeground Management Ltd and a copy of Summary of Rights and Obligations.
We now require payment of the remaining balance in the sum of £416.00 within 7 days of the date of this email.
We look forward to hearing from you.

I have replied to this with the following:

Dear Sir,

With regard to the rent demand this was sent to the property address and not my home property address that the management company knew where i was living so I did not receive a copy.

Could you advise me which section of your lease your client is basing their demands for fees on please.

I have already sent payment for the ground rent as a final settlement, furthermore I feel that the fees attached now are unreasonable and a request for payment within 7 days is also unreasonable when they payment for the ground rent has already been made.

Could you please advise your client that I wish to have my account details verified and login details sent to me via post to my current address which is **** street,.

Yours sincerely

Will see what they come back with but not sure what else I can do now.

JammiRao

I wouldn't worry about JB Leitch

I had a similar run in with them 3 months ago.

3 weeks late with ground rent of 250 pounds and they wanted a total of 600 nearly.

we refused and after a lengthy correspondence they backed down and agreed to the original 49 late payment fee. as a penalty

Our tactic was to
A) pay the ground rent straight way
demand that they pursue the rest of their inflated claim through the small claims court in Birmingham.
C) we researched our lease and found that there was an adequate penalty in it for late payment of ground rent - viz. interest of 4% p.a. above natwest base rate.

They backed down. I suspected then and the experience on this forum confirms that this is a regular scam that they run.. work with landlords, allow leaseholders to slip into arrears, pounce with a huge bill collect the money and split it with landlords.

In my case the landlords agent is based in Southampton, JB Leitch is in liverpool. strange choice of law firm for a company down south.

I complained to BBC's You and Yours they appeared interested at first but chose not to run the story or investigate.

JB leitch in my view also were in breach of the code of conduct set down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. I threatened to lodge a complain but didn't follow through.

May be we should all club together and lodge a formal complain and demand an investigation.

JammiRao

dont pay these thugs

these are striong arm tactics

threats of forfeiture proceedings are just that - threats

seek advice from the leasehiold advisory service, check your lease agreement

refuse to pay any charges other than the ground rent and interest on late payments.

I also found a statement in a law book that ground rent arrears do not amount to administrative charges' if they incurred any costs in hiring a law firm that its for them to prove a) that they tried other means, b) that any charges incurred are reasonable.

challenge them to pursue their claim in county court.

JB Leitch backed down in my case after about 7 letters were exchanged.

jkl1961

Hello,

Can you tell me how you paid the ground rent and to whom please?

I have an arrears situation with Freehold Managers PLC and JB Leitch as their legal representatives.

At this point I am disputing the validity of the added fees but want to pay the ground rent now.

ABPitt

JammiRao wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about JB Leitch

I had a similar run in with them 3 months ago.

...

May be we should all club together and lodge a formal complain and demand an investigation.

Hi, we (and some other landlords in the same estate) are just in the very same situation right now; our management company is called Encore, and they work for City and Country who built the estate. They sent the invoice for the service charge to the wrong address (we rent the property) and with JBLeitch charged us an extortionate amount. I followed this thread carefully (thank you all!) and have just contacted Lease Advice. I just wanted to say that yes I would be more than happy if many of us were to put together a request and demand an investigation into the practices of these management companies and of this particular solicitors practice. I want our voice to be heard, they are behaving in a very dodgy way. Consider that Encore has REFUSED to answer our calls and emails. If nothing else I can at least say: stay clear of them. We found the quality of service so far provided by both them and City and Country massively disappointing.