JB Leitch - Ground Rent Scam

diggingdude

adgabaker wrote: »

I'm a landlord whose tennant didn't pass on the ground rent invoices to me. The outstanding ground rent is £175 and JB Leitch have presented me with a bill for £2966. That means that JBL's charges are £2791. How can they justify that?

It seems that JB Leitch can charge what they like. I wonder if Freehold Managers have a financial interest in JB Leitch?

As a business didn't you look into why you were not being charged?

TybaltAgamemnon

This same thing happened to me - I received a letter from JB Leitch out of the blue saying I had ignored letters from my landlord stating that I owed c. £700 for building insurance. No letter from my landlord had ever arrived. The JB Leitch letter stated I now owe c. £700 for the insurance plus £150 admin fee plus £402 "legal costs". It went on to say that if I didn't pay them directly within 7 days I would incur additional costs and be taken to court.

I spoke to my landlord's agent who said they were having issues resolving this with Leitch themselves, and that I should never have been contacted. Turns out the agent did send me a letter in December asking that I contact them about a new charge on my account but the letter never arrived. Apparently the deadline for payment was just 13 days before I got the letter from Leitch with the additional £552 of charges. The agent couldn't have been more helpful - took payment for the original amount (c. £700) over the phone and emailed afterwards to confirm that the matter was settled.

Worth bearing this in mind if you ever receive a letter from these people. Try speaking to the landlord / their agent directly before being scared into paying Leitch's additional 'costs'.