Ground Rent Arrears Solicitor Costs - Possession Hearing For Forfeiture Of Lease

PRW369

Sorry also the preparation of the section 146 notice?

eddddy

PRW369 said:

Can anyone advise how the administration charges differ from the solicitor fees, thank you?

The administration charges are charges incurred by the freeholder as a result of your failure to pay your ground rent. Those charges might include...

• A charge for time spent by the freeholder dealing with your late payment (e.g. writing you letters, checking details, etc)

• The cost of paper, envelope and postage for sending you reminder letters

• Solicitor's fees

• Court fees

• Debt collection company's fees

PRW369 said:

Sorry also the preparation of the section 146 notice?

Somebody spent time writing (or filling in) a section 146 notice, and sending it to you.

You are being charged for that somebody's time.

PRW369

Yes I understand that but I’m being charged administration fees PLUS fees for serving notice PLUS £1800 solicitors fees 

PRW369

£432.78 ground rent arrears

£329.20 administration charges

£792 preparation & service of section 146 notice

£355 court fee

£1800 legal costs broken down as follows:

receipt & perusal of instructions

file opening

all necessary communcations to client

acquistion of title documents from land registry

acquisition of lease

detailed lease review

checking title position

drafting claim form

drafting particulars of claim

filing certificates of service

eddddy

PRW369 said:

Yes I understand that but I’m being charged administration fees PLUS fees for serving notice PLUS £1800 solicitors fees 

Yes, I can see that. You're being charged for 3 separate tasks. I thought I had answered your questions by explaining what those fees are. If I haven't, can you clarify what your questions are?

And it looks liked you've posted the same list of costs twice. Or is there a difference between the 2 lists?

PRW369

I thought the 3 separate tasks were already covered by the  £329.20 and £792. So not sure what the £1800 additional charges cover. Hope that makes sense

chanz4

If you have the cash pay STRAIGHT away using the bank details the owed cash. The lease wont get cancelled that way, and can be shown you mitigated

eddddy

PRW369 said:

I thought the 3 separate tasks were already covered by the  £329.20 and £792. So not sure what the £1800 additional charges cover. Hope that makes sense

My reading of what you've posted is...

• 1) The freeholder did some admin work as a result of your missed payments - and they are charging you £329.20 for that work

• 2) The freeholder prepared & served a section 146 notice because of your missed payments - and they are charging you £792 for that work

• 3) The freeholder instructed a solicitor a result of your missed payments and the solicitor did some work - and the solicitor charged £1,800 for that work. (And there's a brief list of the work the solicitor did)

Looking at point 1, obviously I don't know what admin work your freeholder did. You should ask them for a breakdown.

You should also ask them for a breakdown of the charge in point 2.

For point 3, the solicitor has provided a rough breakdown.


The law says that all these charges must be "reasonable". So once you have the breakdowns, you should analyse them to see if everything is "reasonable".


To decide whether the charges are "reasonable", perhaps your analysis should include the following...

• Was all the work they did reasonably necessary?
• Was the time they spent doing it reasonable?
• Have they charged a reasonable hourly rate for their time?
• Could they have reasonably got the work done in a different way, which would have cost less?
• Are any 'out-of-pocket' expenses reasonable?

But as mentioned previously, it's probably best to pay the full amount under protest, and then do your analysis afterwards - and make a claim if necessary. 

PRW369

Thanks so much for all your help! 

PRW369

Just posting an update. I made an offer and it’s been accepted, which I am very happy about (well over £2000 reduction) . The last few weeks have been awful, happy to elaborate should anyone else find themselves in a similar situation.  Not sure if it will be useful but I’m glad I reached out. There are good people out there ❤️.