£500 Retention Kept - 1 Month

ccoplestone

Hello all,

Just after some advice. I'd be grateful for any.

I've just sold my leasehold flat. My landlord/lady used to manage the accounts for the building (service charges/ground rent) on their own personal accounts, without a block management company. I am fully up-to-date on payments and this year, they decided to appoint a block management company to handle the accounts for them.

The block management company have provided me and my solicitor with a PDF file showing all of my accounts up-to-date for this year and my previous landlord/lady have confirmed to my solicitor that I have been up-to-date since I lived there.

My buyer's solicitor has since held a £500 retention, which I can understand. However, my solicitor has sent my buyer's solicitor the .PDF files showing all of my up-to-date accounts but a whole month after completing are yet to reply to my solicitor or release my funds are numerous chases from my solicitor.

This means I am out of pocket £500 + £300 ground rent I paid this year which the block management company need a Notice of Transfer to reimburse me, again this is something the buyer's solicitor needs to provide.

I have even sent my buyer's solicitor an email stating these facts, but they of course won't reply to me since legally, they can't.

All I can think of now is going to the Legal Ombudsman for help.

Kind Regards,
Charlie

in_my_wellies

Good luck OP

I sold my mothers flat in January 2020 and there was a £500 retention. I was told this was for 6 months. I am still chasing for this to be returned. My mum's solicitor is blaming the buyers solicitor. I have contacted them but of course they can't reply to me but I thought it might prompt them. It didn't. 

Tiglet2

ccoplestone said:

Hello all,

Just after some advice. I'd be grateful for any.

I've just sold my leasehold flat. My landlord/lady used to manage the accounts for the building (service charges/ground rent) on their own personal accounts, without a block management company. I am fully up-to-date on payments and this year, they decided to appoint a block management company to handle the accounts for them.

The block management company have provided me and my solicitor with a PDF file showing all of my accounts up-to-date for this year and my previous landlord/lady have confirmed to my solicitor that I have been up-to-date since I lived there.

My buyer's solicitor has since held a £500 retention, which I can understand. However, my solicitor has sent my buyer's solicitor the .PDF files showing all of my up-to-date accounts but a whole month after completing are yet to reply to my solicitor or release my funds are numerous chases from my solicitor.

This means I am out of pocket £500 + £300 ground rent I paid this year which the block management company need a Notice of Transfer to reimburse me, again this is something the buyer's solicitor needs to provide.

I have even sent my buyer's solicitor an email stating these facts, but they of course won't reply to me since legally, they can't.

All I can think of now is going to the Legal Ombudsman for help.

Kind Regards,
Charlie

I assume you did agree to the retention?  What were the terms of the retention?  Usually a rider is added to the contract, setting out how long the retention is to be held (usually by the seller's solicitor) and that it will be released to the seller if no requests are received to cover a shortfall.  Ir is unusual for a retention to be held for a month, more likely 12 months or even 18 months, when the Man Co's final accounts are produced.  The seller's solicitor has to obtain agreement from the buyer's solicitor to release the retention.

eddddy

ccoplestone said:

This means I am out of pocket £500 + £300 ground rent I paid this year which the block management company need a Notice of Transfer to reimburse me, again this is something the buyer's solicitor needs to provide.

It would be very, very unusual for the management co to reimburse ground rent to you. 

• If the ground rent bill was due to be paid before the completion date, you owe the full amount, and you have no legal basis for getting reimbursement from the management co.
• If the ground rent bill was due to be paid after the completion date, I guess you wouldn't have paid it.

If any ground rent adjustment/apportionment was due, that would normally be accounted for by the solicitors in the completion statement.

L_T_88

When did you complete?
Retentions are usually for year end accounts. Assuming your lease financial year is April-March, don't expect these to be done, or anything to happen to your retention, until September.

What date was the ground rent due?

Luke86

My friend had the same issue and took over a year to resolve. I personally had a £300 retainer that was released within 1 month. Solicitors are hardly helpful once they've "completed".

LHCalc123

A PP poster is correct. You have to wait for the final accounts which includes any actual expenditure for the year you was still there. These accounts aren't completed usually until 6 months following financial year end.  So I would be asking for a retention for 

LHCalc123

...the previous financial year in anticipation of closing accounts in October.

pbartlett

unless the retention was written into the contract, your solictor had no right to agree to it and should have insisted on full payment from the other party.

if this is the situation raise a complaint with your solicitor. there is no need for a retention unless the contract so specifies.

LHCalc123

If the management company done their bit correctly, they would have advised the solicitor that a retention should be kept in anticipation of works yet to be invoiced.  This is usually done via a management pack/solicitors information pack which is requested by the solicitors of the management company.