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Money back from old Vendor - what can I do?
Jam911
Posts: 3 Newbie
New to this, so may not be posting in the best thread, so bear with me!
Bought a flat last July, a stressful experience and perhaps not helped by going with a 'flat-fee' solicitor based in Yorkshire - I bought in London.
During the payment process, we were asked for £200+ 'apportionement of service charge' which we promptly paid to the Vendor's for their supposed lost costs. As it turns out, this should not have been paid at all, as the service charge year runs April - April (and you do not begin payment until October within the year), therefore it is in fact us who are owed a roughly similar amount from the old owners (April - July).
This has now been ongoing since October, with our solicitors difficult to contact and absolutely nothing coming of my weekly emails and phone calls. In my opinion, it is as simple as the old Vendor's owing roughly £200, which could easily be transferred in a matter of days.
What more can I do? Any help would be much appreciated.
Bought a flat last July, a stressful experience and perhaps not helped by going with a 'flat-fee' solicitor based in Yorkshire - I bought in London.
During the payment process, we were asked for £200+ 'apportionement of service charge' which we promptly paid to the Vendor's for their supposed lost costs. As it turns out, this should not have been paid at all, as the service charge year runs April - April (and you do not begin payment until October within the year), therefore it is in fact us who are owed a roughly similar amount from the old owners (April - July).
This has now been ongoing since October, with our solicitors difficult to contact and absolutely nothing coming of my weekly emails and phone calls. In my opinion, it is as simple as the old Vendor's owing roughly £200, which could easily be transferred in a matter of days.
What more can I do? Any help would be much appreciated.
0
Comments
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Write to the vendor yourself with a clear breakdown of the Charge, who paid hat proporton when, and who now owes what, and request payment?
Assuming you've already written to solicior, check and follow their complaints procedure?
Escalate complaint to http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/for-the-public/faqs/complaining-about-a-solicitor/ ?
Sue the vendor?0 -
New to this, so may not be posting in the best thread, so bear with me!
Bought a flat last July, a stressful experience and perhaps not helped by going with a 'flat-fee' solicitor based in Yorkshire - I bought in London.
During the payment process, we were asked for £200+ 'apportionement of service charge' which we promptly paid to the Vendor's for their supposed lost costs. As it turns out, this should not have been paid at all, as the service charge year runs April - April (and you do not begin payment until October within the year), therefore it is in fact us who are owed a roughly similar amount from the old owners (April - July).
This has now been ongoing since October, with our solicitors difficult to contact and absolutely nothing coming of my weekly emails and phone calls. In my opinion, it is as simple as the old Vendor's owing roughly £200, which could easily be transferred in a matter of days.
What more can I do? Any help would be much appreciated.
Is the service charge paid monthly or annually?It's someone else's fault.0 -
Cheers for your help chaps, unfortunately we don't have a forwarding address for the Vendors so it's all being done (or rather, not done) through our solicitor.
Service charge is paid monthly, commencing in October and running for 10 months, but includes the 12 month period from April to April - i.e. we began paying service charge in October '14 for the period April '14 - '15.0
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