Unfair Fees

dnatsios

We bought a freehold property in December 2009. The property has a garage that is not connected to it, located in a different street around the corner.
After several years of living in the property we moved out and we are now renting it out.
In August 2020 we received a phone call from our mortgage provider informing us that we owed more than £2,000 to cover fees relating to the garage. They put us in touch with the solicitors dealing with the matter and we discovered that whilst our property is freehold, there is a shared area outside of our garage that is subject to an annual charge. The company originally responsible for this area had never charged us, nor given us any indication that they could, but they had sold the rights to a new company in 2019 and this new company was starting to charge. Whilst we were never made aware of this fact, I have been able to now see this is a requirement of our contract and thus accept that they can charge us.
However, the actual charge comes to £563.93. The company apparently sent letters to the address, where we no longer live, and we did not receive these letters. They then added more and more fees to the claim until they are now demanding we pay £2,221.18. They are claiming that it was our responsibility to keep the company informed of our correspondence address, despite the fact that no one had ever asked us to do so from 2009 through to 2019.
Does anyone have any advice as to what my rights are? I am willing to pay the £563.93, but see the £2,221.18 as being deeply unfair.
What is likely to happen if I refuse to pay?
Thanks.

greenface2

Mail being sent to an old address is possibly your issue here . was that not forwarded to you ? seems unfair too . 2019 can be 2 years and a month or 13 months . seems a might lot of extra fees to add on . good luck  

maxsteam

dnatsios said:

Does anyone have any advice as to what my rights are? I am willing to pay the £563.93, but see the £2,221.18 as being deeply unfair.

You should correspond and state what you have stated here. Your position seems entirely reasonable. You should keep copies of correspondence in case it becomes necessary to contest the matter in court at some later date. You can write, asking them to justify the charges. In my opinion you should not make a payment until the total has been agreed.

You need to be aware that Under Section 20B of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a landlord has 18 months within which to notify you of service charge costs being incurred. If they don't notify you within 18 months, you don't have to pay that particular year's charge. It would count as notifying you if they sent the bill to the property even if it did not get forwarded on to you.

I am unsure if the annual charge is a service/maintenance charge or a ground rent. The billing rules differ.