Pet Admin Fee From Management Company

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf

Hi all,

I've just received an email from the management company of the block of flats that I live in, who recently asked residents to send over details of any pets they had (breed/colour/age, etc). Once they received proof of any pets living in the flat, they asked for an upfront £90 admin fee per pet (in my case for two cats, £180). I own this property and have done for two years, and I pay the management company £270 a month in service charge fees (which I think is exorbitant).

My question is why I would need to pay £180 in admin fees for two cats when I thought that such fees were scrapped sometime in 2019?  Is it because they're a management company and not a landlord/letting agency? Maybe i'm missing something here

Many thanks

hazyjo

Did the service charge go up significantly then from when you bought it?

Letting fees have been scrapped (to a certain extent).

What does your lease say about pets? tbh it's the first thing I would have checked if living in a flat. If not allowed, or allowed at the discretion of the freeholder, you're lucky they're not saying "get rid"! Unless it was 100% allowed (none of this 'writing for approval' malarkey), I'd never risk it.

pinkteapot

What is the admin fee for exactly? Are they having to revise your lease?

eddddy

So are you a leaseholder?

If so what does your lease say about keeping a pet in the flat? Many leases say that the leaseholder needs consent from the freeholder (via the management company) to keep a pet.

The law says that the freeholder (or management company) can charge a 'reasonable' admin charge for granting consent (unless the lease says otherwise).  Depending on what the freeholder actually does when granting consent, £90 seems a little high. 

But it's very difficult to see how granting consent for 2 cats is twice as much work as granting consent for 1 cat. So it might be worth challenging the £180 admin charge.

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf

Thanks for the replies all.

I've done a bit more research and it appears that management companies are able to charge a pet licence fee to their leaseholders. My management company say they charge £90 per pet (as opposed to one licence for each property, for example, which would be more reasonable).

I may have to bite the bullet on this one and put it down to continued avarice from management companies, but I think it is worth challenging the £180 cost itself.

I would have thought that pet consent would be the same as a pet admin fee, which is what I thought the government scrapped some time ago along with all the other fees (general admin fee, guarantor fees, etc)?

eddddy

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf said:

I would have thought that pet consent would be the same as a pet admin fee, which is what I thought the government scrapped some time ago along with all the other fees (general admin fee, guarantor fees, etc)?

I think you're confusing yourself with the jargon.

You haven't confirmed that you're a leaseholder, but if you are, there's lots of legislation relating to Leasehold Administration Charges. To reiterate:

• If your lease requires you to get consent for keeping a pet, the law says you can be charged an 'Administration Charge' for getting consent.

• The law says that an 'Administration Charge' must be 'reasonable'.

• If you think the 'Administration Charge' is not 'reasonable', you can challenge it

• But you would need to provide evidence of why you believe the 'Administration Charge' is not reasonable.

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf

eddddy said:

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf said:

I would have thought that pet consent would be the same as a pet admin fee, which is what I thought the government scrapped some time ago along with all the other fees (general admin fee, guarantor fees, etc)?

I think you're confusing yourself with the jargon.

You haven't confirmed that you're a leaseholder, but if you are, there's lots of legislation relating to Leasehold Administration Charges. To reiterate:

• If your lease requires you to get consent for keeping a pet, the law says you can be charged an 'Administration Charge' for getting consent.

• The law says that 'Administration Charge' must be 'reasonable'.

• If you think the 'Administration Charge' is not 'reasonable', you can challenge it

• But you would need to provide evidence of why you believe the 'Administration Charge' is not reasonable.

Yeah I'm the leaseholder

About the reasonable bit, I'm unsure as how to challenge this, given that other residents may already be paying the £90/£180/£270, etc, already. They're house cats and make no use of any of the communal areas (garden/foyers) and solely reside in my property, so I fail to see how £180 is reasonable for this. There's also no grounds for nuisance either.

eddddy

Sunshine_of_your_Dyf said:

About the reasonable bit, I'm unsure as how to challenge this, given that other residents may already be paying the £90/£180/£270, etc, already. They're house cats and make no use of any of the communal areas (garden/foyers) and solely reside in my property, so I fail to see how £180 is reasonable for this. There's also no grounds for nuisance either.

Very briefly, 'reasonable' means that the 'Administration Charge' reflects the work done by the management company, plus any costs they had to pay out.

And in the past, Tribunals (which are like courts) have decided that £50+vat or £60+vat per hour is a reasonable charge for admin work.

So you can ask the management company for a breakdown of the £90 charge and the £180 charge.

If, for example, they give you a breakdown showing that it took them 1.5 hours of Admin work to grant you consent, the £90 might be reasonable.

It might be worth saying to the management company that the charge doesn't seem reasonable, so you want a breakdown, and you will only pay it under protest, and you might challenge it at a tribunal. Sometimes Management Companies reduce fees in those circumstances, because they want to avoid tribunal decisions which show that their fees are unreasonable.

bouicca21

We still don’t know what the lease says.