False Accusations from Management Company

cadence

Evening,

I'm after a bit of advice. We own an apartment which is managed by Mainstay Property Management. We received a letter today from them, accusing us of throwing cigarette butts off the balcony (neither of us smoke), and hanging washing from the balcony, which is against the agreed covenants. Both of these accusations are false, but what can I do to prove this? I'm kinda mad because they have no evidence of this and we have done neither. The closest we get to putting laundry on the balcony is putting the dryer in the doorway!

Kyresa

What action have they stated they will take?

Just write them a letter back, i.e. confirming that neither of you smoke so you think they have the wrong property!

brianposter

If we took global warming seriously the prohibition on hanging out washing would be outlawed.

AnotherJoe

To whom this may concern,
i recently received a letter from you claiming that we threw cigarette butts off the balcony (neither of us smoke), and hung washing from the balcony (we did not, we use a tumble dryer).
I presume that either your letter was misaddressed to the wrong apartment or we are the victim of a malicious claim which you have not had the courtesy to check its accuracy with us first since you certainly will not have any pictures of, for example, the washing which would make it easy to prove on behalf of the miscreant.
Should in future you receive any similar letters, please pass them on to the police for harassment against us by whomever is sending these claims to you.

Yours
Cadence

elsien

Also tell them if they can evidence the washing issue, ideally with photos, you will be only too happy to discuss it further.

G_M

Dear Mr Management Company,


Further to your letter (? email? phonecall?) dated xx/xx/xxxx, this is to confirm that neither I nor my partner (husband? wife? cohabitee?) smoke and that neither of us, nor our guests, have ever thrown cigarette ends off the balcony.

We also do not hang washing off the balcony.


Yours sincerely,


Cadence


Sorted!

eddddy

As above, just reply to the management company explaining that they have identified the wrong flat.

FWIW, it's unlikely that anyone from the management company comes around to check on that kind of stuff - so it's almost certainly a neighbour who has complained about you.

I guess a neighbour could be making up stuff about you for some reason, or it may just be a genuine error.

(e.g. The neighbour got confused about which balcony belongs to which flat number, or the management company wrote to the wrong flat by mistake.)

NeilCr

eddddy wrote: »

As above, just reply to the management company explaining that they have identified the wrong flat.

FWIW, it's unlikely that anyone from the management company comes around to check on that kind of stuff - so it's almost certainly a neighbour who has complained about you.

I guess a neighbour could be making up stuff about you for some reason, or it may just be a genuine error.

(e.g. The neighbour got confused about which balcony belongs to which flat number, or the management company wrote to the wrong flat by mistake.)

This

You do get residents who complain about a lot of things or just get a bee in their bonnet. I had one who kept knocking on my door to point out "illegal" washing lines. Eddddy is right. Managing Agents don't come round looking for breaches of covenant - it is highly likely they are responding to a complaint. You aren't living on an owner owned estate are you? You can get over zealous directors who get the MA to write quite a lot of letters

As others have said reply politely explaining that you haven't breached any covenants. Try not to take it too personally

diggingdude

Or management company have accused someone else and they are trying to pass the buck to you

Fire_Fox

cadence wrote: »

Evening,

I'm after a bit of advice. We own an apartment which is managed by Mainstay Property Management. We received a letter today from them, accusing us of throwing cigarette butts off the balcony (neither of us smoke), and hanging washing from the balcony, which is against the agreed covenants. Both of these accusations are false, but what can I do to prove this? I'm kinda mad because they have no evidence of this and we have done neither. The closest we get to putting laundry on the balcony is putting the dryer in the doorway!

How are these 'accusations' phrased, exactly?

Could the managing agents be writing to all tenants and residents in the block, or a group of tenants and residents (vertically stacked units or horizontally by floor)? That is how our block's managing agents operate in very similar circumstances.

NeilCr

Fire_Fox wrote: »

How are these 'accusations' phrased, exactly?

Could the managing agents be writing to all tenants and residents in the block, or a group of tenants and residents (vertically stacked units or horizontally by floor)? That is how our block's managing agents operate in very similar circumstances.

We often do it that way, too. It's less accusatory and serves as a reminder to everyone else as well. Just sent a letter around about misuse of the recycling bins

If we do write to one person the first letter is, usually, pretty gentle. "We understand that - if you are please stop". The other thing is about resident owned estates. There are onsite directors and, in our case, it's quite easy for us to check any reports along these lines before asking the MA to write. We, usually, try and have a polite word first, though. Quite often, with tenants, the landlord/letting agent doesn't mention the covenants so they are acting unwittingly.

Covenants can be awkward. We are quite live and let live as directors but if someone reports a breach of covenant (and is very insistent, too) we do have to do something