Admin fees for Ground rent in arrears

Cool100

i just talk to the mainstay and they confirm that there won't be additional charge/ fees on top of the £96, as long as i pay my ground rent on time going forward. so there is no cost in pursuing a complaint/ appeal. 
can anyone comment on the two grounds i used for my proposed appeal?

Cool100

NameUnavailable said:

Bear in mind if you go to tribunal that any costs incurred by the management company might be passed back to you under the service charge - check what your lease says.

Challenging £96, and winning, could cost you several thousand if they employ solicitors to deal with the case !

i am not planning to go to court to challenge it. and as mentioned the £96 will just be carried over until i paid them off.

eddddy

Cool100 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Bear in mind if you go to tribunal that any costs incurred by the management company might be passed back to you under the service charge - check what your lease says.

Challenging £96, and winning, could cost you several thousand if they employ solicitors to deal with the case !

i am not planning to go to court to challenge it. and as mentioned the £96 will just be carried over until i paid them off.

So just to be clear - you very clearly told them that you would not be paying the £96 at this stage, and they said that was OK?

You probably need to get that confirmed in writing.

1. they only issue the chasers by post which were sent to the old address, question is should they also chase via email, given the invoice was sent via email in the first place?

• Did they agree that they would send chasers by email?  
• Did you inform them of your correct address?

If the answer to either of those questions is "Yes" - you might have a case. If the answer to both is "No" - you don't really have a case.

2. the £96 admin fee is 32% of the ground rent amount, is it a fair amount? if yes, how can they justify it?

As explained in a previous post - the 32% bit is irrelevant. The law says that they can charge you for their reasonable time and costs (as explained in the previous post). So you need to ask/decide how much time they spent on sending you the two letters.

NameUnavailable

Cool100 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Bear in mind if you go to tribunal that any costs incurred by the management company might be passed back to you under the service charge - check what your lease says.

Challenging £96, and winning, could cost you several thousand if they employ solicitors to deal with the case !

i am not planning to go to court to challenge it. and as mentioned the £96 will just be carried over until i paid them off.

Not sure what you mean by 'carried over' - from your post above I think they have told you that if you pay up now (including the £96) then there won't be any further costs. If they end up having to chase you for the £96 then I would bet they'll be adding further charges on top!

Cool100

NameUnavailable said:

Cool100 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Bear in mind if you go to tribunal that any costs incurred by the management company might be passed back to you under the service charge - check what your lease says.

Challenging £96, and winning, could cost you several thousand if they employ solicitors to deal with the case !

i am not planning to go to court to challenge it. and as mentioned the £96 will just be carried over until i paid them off.

Not sure what you mean by 'carried over' - from your post above I think they have told you that if you pay up now (including the £96) then there won't be any further costs. If they end up having to chase you for the £96 then I would bet they'll be adding further charges on top!

they explicitly told me there won't be any chasers for me not paying the £96, as long as i pay the ground rent on time going forward. 
the £96 will just be sitting in my account indefinitely until the property is sold.

Cool100

eddddy said:

Cool100 said:

NameUnavailable said:

Bear in mind if you go to tribunal that any costs incurred by the management company might be passed back to you under the service charge - check what your lease says.

Challenging £96, and winning, could cost you several thousand if they employ solicitors to deal with the case !

i am not planning to go to court to challenge it. and as mentioned the £96 will just be carried over until i paid them off.

So just to be clear - you very clearly told them that you would not be paying the £96 at this stage, and they said that was OK?

You probably need to get that confirmed in writing.

1. they only issue the chasers by post which were sent to the old address, question is should they also chase via email, given the invoice was sent via email in the first place?

• Did they agree that they would send chasers by email?  
• Did you inform them of your correct address?

If the answer to either of those questions is "Yes" - you might have a case. If the answer to both is "No" - you don't really have a case.

2. the £96 admin fee is 32% of the ground rent amount, is it a fair amount? if yes, how can they justify it?

As explained in a previous post - the 32% bit is irrelevant. The law says that they can charge you for their reasonable time and costs (as explained in the previous post). So you need to ask/decide how much time they spent on sending you the two letters.

regarding the size of the admin fee, if they cannot justify it based on how much effort/ time they spent on the chasers, then do i have a case?
regarding the method used for chasers, they didn't agree to do via email, but at the same time they didn't inform / explain in advance that it will only be done via post either, so do i have a case here due to this ambiguity? 

Seashell517

So you're just deferring paying the £96 until later?

Cool100

Seashell517 said:

So you're just deferring paying the £96 until later?

no not really, my previous comments are just responding to the questions others have asked me.
my aim is to successfully appeal against this, so it would be very helpful if people can kindly advise on whether the two grounds i used are good enough, or any other suggestions for a successful appeal. 
thanks