Service charge refund sent to someone else

Tiglet2

Eddddy I wouldn't suggest the seller to approach the buyer directly, no. Any dialogue should be between the sellers and buyers solicitors.

The seller's solicitor would write to the buyer's solicitor with the evidence to prove that the buyer has a credit on his service charge account to which he was not entitled. This is assuming that the seller's solicitor did not make apportionments for the service charges on completion, or at least not to the end of the accounting period.

The buyer's solicitor would then contact the buyer setting out evidence of the overpayment. The buyer could ignore the letter because, as stated before, the retention of £300 is the only part held as part of the contract. This is why I said that if the buyer ignores the letter (which he could do), it would then be down to the seller to take the matter further, i.e. proving that his solicitor was negligent in not apportioning correctly on completion or by taking the buyer to the small claims court to claim back the overpayment.

Yes, I agree it's a long shot, but it isn't necessarily case closed because it wasn't in the contract, and is certainly worth making an effort to pursue rather than just writing it off.

I am a paralegal conveyancing assistant working directly with a solicitor at a conveyancing law firm.

eddddy

As a paralegal, you seem very confused about how the law works.

For example:

Tiglet2 wrote: »

...or by taking the buyer to the small claims court to claim back the overpayment

You can't take somebody to court because you ask them for a gift, and they refuse to give you a gift.

You need a legal basis for winning a court claim - such as breach of contract.



As for the solicitor writing a letter - yes, many solicitors will write 'nasty letters' to people demanding money, when there is no legal basis for the demand. The intention is to fool people into paying.

I guess that's a valid option to mention in this thread, but it's probably important that you mention that it's just a 'dirty trick', which may or may not work.

Pigletntrekky

Thanks for the further info. I emailed m6 solicitor again yesterday asking them again what is happening. All the other home owners private owners in the block got a credit to their account or a bank transfer from l n q. Everyone had over paid as it was the first year they managed the building. Yes you are correct with your math. We have overpaid by £1300 and have final statements from the other owners as l n q would not send me one having sold. My solicitor made us pay nearly £1600 over 3 months to l n q to complete. I’m just at the end of my tether with this. I will leave my solicitor again for another week then call them. I can prove the statement charge for 2018 to 2019 and have my statement to show payments. I didn’t want to pay them all that money but they refused to complete with outstanding debt on the estimated service charge.
So the new buyer got my refund in September and will not have to pay service charges for 18 months?! How can this be legal and fair??