House with fleecehold debt need advise please.

mohammadb1234

@km1500
I’m thinking of paying the fees I owe and the costs. Would I have a chance to claim the solicitor costs after I pay if they are proved to be excessive or incorrect 

mohammadb1234

@pinkshoes
the maintenance company states that as this now with a solicitor I have to deal with them directly and can’t make the payment to them. I’ll try see what they say about paying just the maintenance fee. Thanks for the advise 

mohammadb1234

Hi all

a few points I have forgotten to mention. So I initially received a letter from the law firm in September. I tried contacting the solicitor handling my file over the phone but they were always unavailable. I was told to email them instead. Which I did and they responded to my query where i explained why I withheld payment and my issues. 

They spoke with the maintenance company and emailed stating that nothing could be done as there was no record of me reporting the fence issues and even then I should have never withheld payment. 

I called the solicitor and spoke to her once I received this email. I explained to her that I would pay what I owe and the initial fee of £250 they were charging me but in instalments. She said she would speak to the maintenance company and agree it with them and get back to me. 

Around a month after this conversation I received an email on 25th November which I only opened 2 days ago when I received a further email. The email on 25th November didn’t mention anything about a payment plan all it said was I need to pay a further charge of around £350 in solicitor fees. 

On 12th Jan after I contacted the maintenance company with regards to the fence issue still not being sorted I received a call from the accounts team who once made aware that a solicitor was dealing with my file contacted the solicitor who then sent me an emailing stating that I was now being charged a further £600 in fees due to not responding on 25th November. 

I called them to discuss this. Explained I never read the email dated 25th November until the day I received the most recent email from them. I even explained that I was happy with paying using a payment plan so why do they add a further £950 in fees instead of setting a payment plan. 

They are now happy to set up a payment plan for around £600 a month over 3 months. 

My question is as I asked the solicitor back in October to request a payment plan and they then ignored this request and instead just charged me a further £950 and also the fact that I never agreed to being contacted by email and would have preferred a letter each time they were increasing the costs of what they were charging me. Can I fight the extra fees since my request for a payment plan. As the solicitor clearly didn’t do what I requested. 

Also I say solicitor but she is a paralegal not to sure what the difference is. 

eddddy

Presumably you have bought a freehold house, and when you bought the house you signed a deed agreeing to pay Estate Management Charges.

You need to read that deed - it is the contract that you have agreed to.

So the key question is...

• Does the deed say they can charge you for all the charges they are asking for (including solicitors' bills etc)?

• Or are they charging you for something that the deed doesn't allow them to charge you for?

If they are only charging you what the deed allows them to charge you, it's probably best to pay.