Do I have to pay ?

eddddy

You're over complicating this. The law is very straightforward.

Your freeholder has presented you with a demand for £700. If you ask them, they MUST show you receipts to prove that they have paid out this money.

So STEP 1 - ask to see those receipts.

If they refuse to show you, they are committing a criminal offence.

The fact that somebody else has bought the freehold is irrelevant. The new owners carry forward the rights and responsibilities of the old owners.

See below (from http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/documents/Service_Charges.pdf)

Rights to further information (inspecting accounts and receipts) (Section 22 Landlord & Tenant Act 1985)

As well as receiving the summary, the leaseholder has the right to inspect documents relating to his service charge as a follow-up to provide more detail on the summary. Within a period of six months from receipt of the summary, the service charge payer (or the secretary of a recognised tenants’ association) may write to the landlord requiring him to allow access to and inspection of
the accounts, receipts and any other documents relevant to the service charge information in the summary and to provide facilities for them to be copied.

The above right applies even if the summary was provided via an end of year statement of account, rather than in response to a formal request for a summary under section 21.

Facilities for inspection must be provided within one month of the request, and must be available for a period of two months.

Failure to provide a summary or allow access to further information

Where a landlord fails without reasonable excuse to comply with either a request for a summary or to inspect supporting documents they commit a summary offence on conviction and are liable
for a fine of up to £2,500 (level 4 on the standard scale of fines for summary offences). The local housing authority has the power to bring proceedings, or they can be brought by the leaseholder.
Local authorities are exempt from prosecution, but not Housing Associations.

NeilCr

It sounds like the old freeholder just lumped all the money into one pot. From what you say I suspect that the £700 won't show as actually being for fire safety or anything else

As Eddddy says there should be accounts/ a summary whatever. And yes ask for proof of expenditure/receipts as a first step

Are you the sole leaseholder or are there are others in the block/house/whatever. If there are do you know what's happening with them?

It would appear that the new freeholder has taken over and found that the old freeholder let things slide - including not collecting service charges

Eddddy. Out of interest, as our managing agents do this for us so I am not always up to speed, what would happen if either part of the money was for a sinking fund (I assume that would be defined in the summary) or more likely in this case, that the money may have been spent but not on fire safety.

eddddy

NeilCr wrote: »

Eddddy. Out of interest, as our managing agents do this for us so I am not always up to speed, what would happen if either part of the money was for a sinking fund (I assume that would be defined in the summary) or more likely in this case, that the money may have been spent but not on fire safety.

Taking a step back...

People seem to be thinking that freeholders can ask for almost any money they want, and spend it how they want. They cannot.

The lease is a legal document that states what a freeholder can spend money on.

If the lease says the freeholder can put money in a sinking fund, then they can.

But the freeholder must still account for every penny that goes into that fund. And additionally, the law states that the amount put into the sinking fund must be 'reasonable', and that any expenditure made from it must be 'reasonable'.

If a leaseholder thinks that anything that a freeholder does with the leaseholders' money is 'unreasonable', there are routes to challenge it at a Tribunal.