Service charge for before I bought the property

eddiejones

Hi folks,

So my local council happens to own the freehold for the flat I purchased in Nov 2018. A couple of weeks ago I rang them to stay that I had not received a bill for the service charge, and ask when I might not get it.
They told me that:

1. They had been told a different person bought the place . That might just be that they were never told the new owner's name.
2. Service charge for 2018 had not been paid either.

So I got onto my conveyancer from last year. He is super slow at replying (he gets nothing from me now I guess...). I'm mainly concerned about point 2. At completion he billed me for the service charge for the portion of November 2018 that I was going to be owner for.

Today he tells me that the service charge is my responsibility at the time of completion.

Is this right?

This is the first I have heard that I need to pay 2018's service charge despite owning the place for only five weeks in 2018. I wouldn't have known to check this stuff. At the very least he should have mentioned it. I assumed that the service charge was being sorted for up to the end of November. I'd be interested to hear what he did with the money I paid him for November 2018 service charge. At the very least it seems disingenuous.

Thanks for any help folks!

Ed

Update: The service charge bill for previous years had been issued in September of the year. I.e. by late November, the bill would have been issued already. I.e. it's not the case that the charges had not yet been demanded.

diggingdude

is it a cheap online conveyancer? I would be looking up their complaints process

SmashedAvacado

It was your solicitor's obligation to you to check that the current service charge accounts had been paid. They are trying to wriggle out of their obligation to you - and you should be clear with them that it was their job to ensure that monies owed to the landlord up to the point of completion had been paid. Worse though is that they apportioned a cost to you at completion not having checked that the seller had paid the amount for that year. They really ought to make you whole in relation to this. If you allege to them that they have been negligent then they will have to take you seriously because they will have to inform their insurers etc.

eddiejones

Thanks a lot for the response both!
Fyi, it was a solicitor in my town!

diggingdude

eddiejones wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the response both!
Fyi, it was a solicitor in my town!

In that case put in a complaint and don't be afraid down the line to mention local facebook groups, local paper etc