ers

elamani

Deleted.

eddddy

elamani said:

Need advice, charged for letters

Hi, I need some advice. I own a flat and due to various reasons I was late paying the ground rent one year. This then escalated to fees for letters they sent to my old house. I had told them I had moved but not voluntarily sent my new address. They also did not ask for it. Anyway I've several of these letters costing several hundred pounds and I've now asked for them to provide proof of posting and they can not. Do I just back down and pay or let them take me to court and argue that they can't show proof of postage. I've said I am happy to pay everything else although that includes a hefty referral to pdc which occurred whilst I was arguing over the letters. The letters add up to about 500 pounds. I've also never been to court so no idea what their next steps would be. Any help appreciated

It depends on the wording of your lease, but the freeholder could probably do any of the following:

• Continue to send you letters and/or instruct a solicitor - and then charge you for each letter sent, and charge the solicitor's fees to you 

• Make a claim for the money through the court - i.e. sue you

• Contact your mortgage lender, and ask them to pay - which would increase the size of your mortgage

• If the amount owing is more than £500, the freeholder can start the process of forfeiting your lease - i.e. repossessing your flat. If you let that happen, you would lose the flat with no compensation - over a debt of a few hundred pounds.

To stop any of the above happening, often the advice is to pay the charges under protest, and then challenge them at a tribunal. But make sure you tell the freeholder in writing that you are paying under protest - otherwise the tribunal may not allow a challenge.

This flowchart shows the process you should follow for a disputed service charge, and it's the same for a disputed Admin Charge (as in this case): https://www.lease-advice.org/files/2016/09/service-charge-dispute-resolution-flowchart2.pdf


A tribunal will decide whether the fees are 'reasonable'. Your post is a bit unclear, but if you told the freeholder your new address, and they continued to send letters to your old address, I'd guess a tribunal would say that's not 'reasonable'.

If you tell the freeholder that you intend challenging the charge at a tribunal, they may reduce the charge to avoid the tribunal hearing - and/or you could try making an offer of what you think is 'reasonable'.

davidmcn

eddddy said:

A tribunal will decide whether the fees are 'reasonable'. Your post is a bit unclear, but if you told the freeholder your new address, and they continued to send letters to your old address, I'd guess a tribunal would say that's not 'reasonable'.

I had interpreted "I had told them I had moved but not voluntarily sent my new address" as meaning that the OP was deliberately evading them.

notrouble

elamani said:

...... I had told them I had moved but not voluntarily sent my new address. They also did not ask for it. ...

Sounds like you did not inform them of your new address so natutally they wrote to the only address they held for you. It's not their job to ask for your address. It's your job to tell them. Hence you owe them for theit letters. Whether the amount they are charging is 'reasonable' is a separate question.

Slithery

elamani said:
I had told them I had moved but not voluntarily sent my new address.

I don't see how this is anything but your fault.
Pay up.

elamani

I am disabled and often have severe difficulties functioning and bad brain fog. They did not ask for the new address so I thought they would email me with queries etc. Thank you for the advice about the tribunal, it's very appreciated I will do that. Thank you so much!

notrouble

Kindly re-instate your original post.

It is poor forum etiquette to delete the original post - other people with similar issues may benefit from reading your thread and reviewing the issues raised, and the answers provided.

MovingForwards

notrouble said:

Kindly re-instate your original post.

It is poor forum etiquette to delete the original post - other people with similar issues may benefit from reading your thread and reviewing the issues raised, and the answers provided.

It was quoted in the post after OPs post.

eddddy

MovingForwards said:

notrouble said:

Kindly re-instate your original post.

It is poor forum etiquette to delete the original post - other people with similar issues may benefit from reading your thread and reviewing the issues raised, and the answers provided.

It was quoted in the post after OPs post.

Actually, it wasn't quoted when notrouble posted at 7pm today.

I saw notrouble's post and so I edited the Original Post into my post above at 8:04pm today. (But obviously, I can't change the thread title).