Ground rent robbery

ellie14

Can anyone advise ,we pay our g/r in July ,and we sent them a cheque for the full £200 in july .We went on holiday for 8wks and on return we had a letter demanding we pay £323 as they did not receive the cheque ,so my mum sent another cheque for £200 only but they are demanding £323 saying they did not receive the cheque I cannot prove otherwise but this is too much for my 84yr mum to find ,what can I do .

dmg24

Could I ask where the additional £123 has come from? Seems like an odd amount for admin charges?

olly300

I presume you have:
1. Checked that the cheque has not be cashed by cross referencing it with your statement?
2. Checked that you have sent it to the correct postal address for your freeholder/management agent?

I suggest you give us more detail out the charges.

Found this from lease-advice.org:
"[FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]The landlord cannot serve a valid section 146 notice where the amount of service charges, administration charges or ground rent owed (or a combination of all of these) total less than £350, or have been outstanding for less than three years. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,arial,Helvetica]Of course, while forfeiture or action seeking repossession may not take place, a landlord may seek to recover monies through other means, such as the small claims court. This should not therefore be used as a means of withholding sums of money that are lawfully and reasonably payable under the terms of the lease."[/FONT]

ellie14

Thanks for reply They are saying they have had to search my mortgage and send two letters , cheque has not been cashed ,right address posted , the £123 is admin charges which seem excessive ,I may add we dont owe money to anyone we always pay on time, they could check this .I have tried to phone them but they are not returning my calls.

ellie14

I have found the letter with the contents

Arrears letter £15

Obtaining Office Copy entries in relation to arrears £25

File Preperation £60

Vat £17.50

Ground rent arrears @01/07/2007 £200


Land registry search £6.00

Total £323.50

dmg24

Did you send the cheque by recorded delivery?

Have they explained why they needed to search for your mortgage?

Did they send any reminder letters?

They seem to have gone to extreme lengths to chase this amount, and to me 'file preparation' should only really be relevant to court proceedings, which would not be relevant for this amount.

Are the above charges detailed in your lease, or within any other information received from the landlord/ management company?

ellie14

We just had one reminder letter while on holiday ,that is the one we sent the relpacement cheque with,They dont say why they have searched my mortgage .We didnt record the letter thought it was safe.It just seems so very quick to impose these charges and them refusing to listen to explanations,I will check our lease for details.

dmg24

If these charges have not been detailed beforehand, then I would say that you have grounds to challenge them (I am not 100% on this - hopefully someone will be able to confirm this).

Is it a management company that you are dealing with, or the landlord?

ellie14

Its a management company ,thanks for the help ,much appreciated.

dmg24

My management company (Peverel) routinely lose letters, and deny receipt of emails (even though an auto receipt has been received by the sender!).

The only time I have had any (limited!) joy with them is when I instigate the complaints procedure. In doing this, I also send a copy of my complaint to ARMA (Association of Residential Managing Agents), and it seems to be this that gets then to take action.

Keep in touch with how you get on x

ellie14

I have been in touch with leashold advice centre ,apparently if I wasnt sent a proper demand in the first place then I can challenge them.The lady said the demand must say in accordance with the 2002 property act ,if it doesnt its not legal.Mine is an account not a demand and its dated property 1987 which is out of date.