Mainstay Property management

Hort98

Hi,

Looking for some advice with regards to where I stand with Mainstay property management.

I purchased a 2 bed flat and completed end of April 2017. My solicitor issued me with a summons for £720 to cover ground rent and service charge from April 2017 to September 2017. Which can be seen in my bank statements that I paid to my solicitor.

However, Mainstay have issued me with a summons from April to September and upon calling say there has been no payment made to the account. I've contacted my solicitor who say they have paid the money to the sellers solicitor and they have a receipt from the previous owner showing April to September 2017 as being paid.

Mainstay customer service are unwilling to discuss the previous owners account due to data protection and insist if it had been paid the payment would show on my account and no summons would be sent if it had been paid.

I have been told my account will go into arrears in July and will be handed on to a debt recovery agency and I'll be hit with fines.

So I have screenshots of bank statements and a screenshot from the previous owners of the April to September 2017 summons showing the account having been paid. The summons shows date of 23rd Feb.

Can anyone offer me any advice what to do next?

I've contacted my solicitor several times and they are very slow in dealing with this matter.

Thank you

00ec25

your use of wording is rather confusing

a "summons" is a word that describes the act of you being summoned to appear in front of a judge in court. I think you mean you have simply been sent an invoice (aka "bill") to be paid covering the service charges for the period since you became owner?

a "fine" is a charge levied as a result of you breaking criminal law. Companies cannot issue "fines". I think you simply mean they have threatened you that if your account gets into arrears you will incur an interest charge and/or a penalty charge. The legality of either charge being a matter of what is listed in the contract you have with the management company.

as for the management company's allegations then clearly the money has been credited to the wrong account by them. Your only way forward is to get the evidence from your solicitor that they have paid money to Mainstay and therefore either the solicitors sent it to the wrong account or Mainstay have made an internal error in their own accounts. Receipts "going astray" is a daily fact of life and should be easily resolved given a bit of time to trace where they went .

no need to panic

saajan_12

Hort98 wrote: »

Hi,

I purchased a 2 bed flat and completed end of April 2017. .. So I have screenshots of bank statements and a screenshot from the previous owners of the April to September 2017 summons showing the account having been paid.

You completed in April 2017, so who’s name was the account in during April – Sept 2017 (yours or seller’s)?

I would ask your sellers to ask Mainstay for a summary of their account. As far as I can see, there are three possibilities:
1) Seller’s account runs till Sept 2017 and is fully paid up. Your account only starts in Sept 2017 and you have no liability for before that as far as Mainstay are concerned.
2) Seller’s account runs till April 2017 and is overpaid / in credit. Your account starts in April 2017 and is in arrears. Then pay up and recover the money from seller or see if Mainstay will transfer the money somehow.
3) It is one account, just the name was changed when the flat lease was assigned to you. You should be allowed to see data on what is now your account.