Ground Rent Bill - Tenant Not Forwarding Mail

omariqy

Hello all

I am in the process of selling my flat which I purchased last year. At that point in time I paid ground rent in advance. Last week I got an e-mail from my solicitor stating that I owed this year's ground rent bill of £150 but that their solicitors had added charges of £750 incl legal costs as this was due in January. I had no idea about this bill being due and assumed it was due sometime this month. It turns out the tenants or the management company have not been forwarding mail to me and this includes two letters from the company who I owe ground rent too. What options do I have now? I feel a bit cheated that I have to pay these extortionate costs when I had no idea about them and when post was not forwarded on to me. I've checked the agreement and there is nothing in there about me being responsible for asking for post etc. I am thinking that I ask the management company for money off for the sale fee (they are also selling my property) when the sale goes through?

Guest101

Or you look after your own financial affairs and don't blame someone else? - I know it's revolutionary. But if I owed fees, id ask when they were due.

theartfullodger

That you didn't bother to ensure royal mail forwarded you post is your problem: Relying on tenant to forward mail is likely to lead to disappointment, pain & bills.

Why had you not bothered to inform ground-rent company of your actual address.

No offence but, own goal, cough up!!

fairy_lights

Why didn't you ask the ground rent company to send their invoices to your own address?
Why have you been having your personal mail sent to your tenants?
I don't see how you can hold anyone else responsible if you haven't managed to sort out your own mail redirection.

G_M

The responsibility for paying your ground rent, on time, is yours.

It is not your tenant's resposnibility to forward your mail. They are renting a home for themselves, not a mailbox service.

Why had you not informed the freeholder (or management company maanging the ground rent on their behalf) of your address?

Why had you not paid RoyalMail for a postal forwrding service?

Expensive lesson learned.

omariqy

Thanks all. The company changed half way through so I had no idea who to contact. I asked the management company to forward my mail. However, I get what everyone is saying and appreciate the replies.

pinkshoes

omariqy wrote: »

Thanks all. The company changed half way through so I had no idea who to contact. I asked the management company to forward my mail. However, I get what everyone is saying and appreciate the replies.

If you have given the management company your new address where the bills were to be sent to, then I would argue that they sent the bill to the wrong address and therefore just pay the bill minus any extra charges.

It is not the tenant's responsibility to forward mail. That is what Royal Mail redirection service is for!

teddysmum

As tenants have posted ,a number of times, landlord mail being addressed to the rented property suggests some kind of fiddle ( ie wanting to give the impression that they live in the property for some reason),so tenants are likely to not want involvement.

G_M

omariqy wrote: »

Thanks all. The company changed half way through so I had no idea who to contact. I asked the management company to forward my mail. However, I get what everyone is saying and appreciate the replies.

* if your lease specifies the charge is payable 6 monthly (or similar) then you'll get a bill halfway through the year. What does your lease say?

* when you say 'management company', do you mean
a) the MC working for the freeholder and responsible for collecting the gound rent, or
b) the MC working for you, and responsible for managing your tenancy?

If a) above and you informed them in writing of your current address, and they erroneously sent the bill to the property, not the address you had given them, then the liability is theirs.

Send them the ground rent only, with a covering letter, and enclose a copy of the letter you set them informing them of your address.

If b), send them the full amount now demanded.

edit: just realised you said "the company changed halfway through" not ""the company charged halfway through". Sorry!

But the advice is the same. If you'd told the original company, they should have pased all that correspondance to the new company, so they should have known,