Charged £15 for an email wihout warning is this fair?

ad78

Hello,
I was wondering if you could possibly provide me with some advice.
I have ended up in ground rent arrears on a rental property I own as the tenants had not been paying. The amount for the past 5 years totals £9.00. The company who collects the ground rent have recently sent me a bill for the arrears plus £55 administration costs. I emailed them to provide me a breakdown of what the costs were for but I also asked if this would incur me a further charge. They subsequently replied with the breakdown but then also stated at the end of the email that a further £15 had now been added to my account.
I was just therefore wondering what my rights are - I am obviously more than willing to pay the outstanding ground rent and the original admin costs but feel that it is unacceptable to have been charge an extra £15 without prior warning. Do you have any advice?
Many thanks.

CalumHeath

Presuming you have signed a contract for this service, have a look at the terms within it: if there is a reference(s) to an administration charge for contacting you then there is little you can do to argue against it. If there is no such reference, you can politely point out that you did not agree to accept such charges and so will not be paying it.

Don't forget that emails and letters also act as contracts, if you've agreed to pay administration charges (either knowingly or not), or you've been advised that administration charges may be applied and you haven't argued against or contested it, then it'll be hard to argue against paying it at this stage especially as you carried on receiving the services they offer knowing this information.

Ask them to show you where you agreed to pay such charges and advise them that you won't be paying it until they do. Of course, if they can demonstrate you agreed administration charges (even if the actual amount isn't specified) then you'll just have to put it down to experience and pay the bill and remember for the future.

Not much more to it than that really.

Mallotum_X

Sending a demand without a breakdown and then charging the breakdown seems inherently unfair. I'd send a full and final payment excluding the 15.

harveybobbles

Shouldnt the ground rent have been paid by the owner? ie YOU?

Not sure if its upto the tennants to pay this, unless its a service charge for stuff like cleaning windows, cutting communial grass etc. But even then they would be listed on a tennancy as Service Charge.

A house I look after has ground rent of £1.50 I think and that is paid by the owner. However, as the owner of the house lives in Australia, I pay this.

The tennants just pay the rent.

sourcrates

ad78 wrote: »

I was just therefore wondering what my rights are - I am obviously more than willing to pay the outstanding ground rent and the original admin costs but feel that it is unacceptable to have been charge an extra £15 without prior warning. Do you have any advice?
Many thanks.

Simple, don't pay the 15 quid.
They cannot charge you for receiving an email, its absolutely ludicrous.
Pay the ground rent + there late charge, they can swing for the extra £15.

katejo

harveybobbles wrote: »

Shouldnt the ground rent have been paid by the owner? ie YOU?

Not sure if its upto the tennants to pay this, unless its a service charge for stuff like cleaning windows, cutting communial grass etc. But even then they would be listed on a tennancy as Service Charge.

A house I look after has ground rent of £1.50 I think and that is paid by the owner. However, as the owner of the house lives in Australia, I pay this.

The tennants just pay the rent.

i thought exactly the same as I read the initial question.

patanne

Has the ground rent changed hands in recent years? If so you need to check that the arrears are correct. I know my experience is from many years ago, but every time they sold mine the next bill always had arrears on it. I was never even a week late paying. Once they tried for 6 years arrears. This is why I bought it from the last one. But they are not exactly making any money from this as under £2 per year barely pays for the postage & printing. So whilst £15 for an email does seem excessive, I can see why.

You also need to get the bills sent to you. You never know you might be lucky like I was. My last bill came with a note to the effect that if you get your act together and contact us BEFORE this billing period is over (not before the money is due) we will do you a FREE quote, which they did.

CalumHeath

sourcrates wrote: »

Simple, don't pay the 15 quid.
They cannot charge you for receiving an email, its absolutely ludicrous.

Not strictly true; if the OP has agreed to pay administration charges (which may include the sending of emails) then there really is no argument against not paying it.

The only way to know for sure is to read the contract that was signed, if there's anything in that refers to administration and the sending of emails then it'll be hard to argue it.

Whether people think it's fair or not is meaningless: this whole forum is about people who feel they have been treated unfairly.

OP: the prior warning you seek may be within the the Ts and Cs - you must check what you have signed. If there's nothing in there relating to this charge then politely decline to pay it, but don't argue it blindly without checking the facts of what you've signed up to - this'll just make you look foolish if it ever went legal.

We're on your side, let us know what you find.