Ground Rent late payment notice - Incorrect

Bovy

Hi I live in an apartment block, and have just received a "late payment final notice" letter from the ground rent management company. In it they have charged a late payment fee of £34.80 on top of the yearly ground rent of £250.00.

They state that the ground rent was due on 1 June. However the problem is that this is the first communication that I have received from them this year i.e. there was no letter prior to 1 June to say that the ground rent was due to be paid.

I checked with another owner occupier in the building and exactly the same thing has happened to them i.e. no advance notice / first communication received is a late payment fee.

What are my rights here? Normally every year I receive prior warning of the upcoming ground rent, however this year nothing.

Thanks for the help!

Old_Git

pay the £250 tell them to prove they gave you a previous notice

moneyistooshorttomention

They might "just" have issued letters when due to do so - but sent them by post and your 2 letters (and others?) were lost en route by the Post Office.

What way do you all normally receive your letters? - is it by post or do they physically go round the building posting them through your letterboxes by hand?

As stated by other poster though - I'd pay up now (assuming you were expecting the charge at this sort of time of year of course - and they haven't changed their regular timing) and state that you received no previous notification (and nor did Neighbour) and "can only presume that the Post Office is in error for not delivering the notification letters we presume you must have sent us timeously" and state that "We will look forward to receiving copies of the original letters you state you sent to us giving notification that this was due".

Bovy

Thanks to both of you.

I've paid the £250 now but withheld the admin charge. We normally receive letters by post rather than posted by hand.

Every year we receive a letter in advance, however this year we didn't receive anything; because of that it had completely passed my mind that the deadline was looming.

Thanks for the advice