Court Action for repossession scam.

N.FitzHugh

I own the long (125 yr) lease on a property from Chime Properties Ltd.
I let it out on a shorthold tenancy.
They have been sending all the ground rent demands to the flat and my tenant has not been passing them on. The first thing I know is a judge at my local county court rings me up to tell me they have made a claim for repossessing the lease, he found my number in the telephone directory! If he had not done that they could have repossessed my £100K lease and I'd have nothing.
The whole thing is completely out of proportion. If they had sent the demands marked 'urgent' or by recorded delivery it would not have happened. If they had asked the management company which manages their property, they would have the correct address.
Their system seems designed to find weaknesses in communication and push it for all it's worth, which, in this case would be £100K.
Beware of Chime Properties Ltd and CSJplc (formerly Chancery St James) their ground rent grabbing side-kicks.
I'd love to know if this has happened to anyone else.

theartfullodger

Did you write (yes, WRITE - keeping copy) to Chime with your actual address?

Tenant is not obliged to send on mail: Nothing preventing you setting up automatic re-direction of mail - any reason why you didn't, please?

G_M

As artful says, the onus is on you to make sure your freeholder knows where to send demands for ground rent. He's not psychic.

Of course, if you can show that you did inform the freeholder in writing of your actual address, that is different, and you should then be claiming any costs this court case is cost you.

The freeholder has no obligation to send rent demands by recorded delivery, No other business sends invoices recorded delivery. And even if they had, your tenant might have signed for it and then binned it.

Your tenant is not your postman. He has no obligation to forward or otherwise manage your mail.

AnotherJoe

It's not a scam, you've been negligent.

N.FitzHugh

My tenant is obliged to send on mail, it's in her contract, but it's no good suing her, she's from Libya and has a poor grasp of English.
The company which collects service charges and is an agent of the landlord, knows my address.
I have paid CSJ with a cheque once and attached a covering letter with my correct address, the trouble is that I don't have a copy and, of course, they won't produce it.
The Judge thought it was a scam and their system is set up to take advantage of problems of communication. The Landlord has no website or email address and only accepts cheques by post, in this day and age!! They do it that way on purpose if you read other people's experiences.
Yes, I am at fault for failing to remember to pay a once yearly bill which changes and which has gone to the wrong address, but they love those situations and exploit them to the full.

MrsNubs

Your ground rent shouldn't change. Your management charges may, but ground rent is a fixed amount every year, as stipulated in your lease. It may increase every x years but it won't change yearly. Therefore you should have known how much it was and when it was due. Even if you hadn't received the demands, you would have known to send a cheque.

Also, you may have a clause in the tenancy agreement saying all mail should be forwarded on, but this is, as far as I know, unenforceable. Why should your tenant pay for your mail to be re-directed. This is a cost you should bear. It's no good suing your tenant because you will lose.

00ec25

N.FitzHugh wrote: »

My tenant is obliged to send on mail, it's in her contract, but it's no good suing her, she's from Libya and has a poor grasp of English.

suggests you use that address for other purposes, what else goes there that you deliberately need to get a tenant to forward it ?

N.FitzHugh wrote: »

The company which collects service charges and is an agent of the landlord, knows my address.
I have paid CSJ with a cheque once and attached a covering letter with my correct address, the trouble is that I don't have a copy and, of course, they won't produce it.
The Judge thought it was a scam and their system is set up to take advantage of problems of communication. The Landlord has no website or email address and only accepts cheques by post, in this day and age!! They do it that way on purpose if you read other people's experiences.

and yet the judge found in their favour so I doubt the judge would use the word scam

N.FitzHugh wrote: »

Yes, I am at fault for failing to remember to pay a once yearly bill which changes and which has gone to the wrong address, but they love those situations and exploit them to the full.

so your annual tax return was improperly prepared since you failed to check if recurring charges had been included when you calculated your net profit.

if your attention to the profitability of your rental business is so poor then this may actually be a useful lesson for you to pay more attention to your cashflow and where your costs lie

FBaby

My tenant is obliged to send on mail, it's in her contract, but it's no good suing her, she's from Libya and has a poor grasp of English.

No they are not. You can put in the contract, but it doesn't mean they HAVE TO do it.

Why would you not inform of your change of address if it means avoiding this situation? Wouldn't not inform your bank if you changed address?

Sounds like you didn't want Chimes property to know you were renting the property, in which case, it backfired, pure and simple.

G_M

You could put a clause in the tenancy agreement saying the tenant has to sweep the kitchen floor weekly and switch off all TVs other elecronic equipment at 9.42 every night excepting only Friday nights when they may be used till 10.01.

That would be as enforcible as your mail-forwarding clause.

Deal with your own mail! Inform the Land Registry, your freeholder, HMRC, your bank(s), DVLA, your insurer(s) and all other relevant organisations of your residential address.

Ground rent is fixed. It can only change as specified in your lease, so you should know when it will change and by how much.

An address for the freeholder is required by law. Email etc is not.

Cheeky_Monkey

N.FitzHugh wrote: »

My tenant is obliged to send on mail, it's in her contract, but it's no good suing her, she's from Libya and has a poor grasp of English.
The company which collects service charges and is an agent of the landlord, knows my address.
I have paid CSJ with a cheque once and attached a covering letter with my correct address, the trouble is that I don't have a copy and, of course, they won't produce it.
The Judge thought it was a scam and their system is set up to take advantage of problems of communication. The Landlord has no website or email address and only accepts cheques by post, in this day and age!! They do it that way on purpose if you read other people's experiences.
Yes, I am at fault for failing to remember to pay a once yearly bill which changes and which has gone to the wrong address, but they love those situations and exploit them to the full.

So presumably, she had no idea what she was signing!

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

Is she here legally? Did the OP bother to check?