Forfeiture of Lease demand (JB Leitch..)

sansgosh

Hi there 

I’ve seen a fair bit about JB Leitch on this forum but all seem a little different from my situation so just wanted to get some advice/sense check before paying anything!

I bought a flat in 2014-ish, lived there for a few years then moved out but kept the flat to rent out. In this period the leaseholder/landlord changed but I received no communication of the change, who I needed to pay or how to pay it. To confuse matters some other properties (I now know this was the houses rather than apartments) found out they didn’t have to pay ground rent which I heard through the grapevine so assumed not hearing anything was in line with this development of not needing to pay anything. 

Now approx 3 years later I’ve received a section 146 from JB Leitch, for the outstanding ground rent, admin charges of £320 and solicitor expenses incurred of £1,260. (Clause in lease says obliged to pay all expenses)

However my issue is that I never received a communication stating how to pay the new landlord. Apparently some tenants received a letter three years ago with some details on this. There’s a chance that this went to the property and wasn’t passed on to me (my tenant from then has now gone so no way of checking), however they should have had my forwarding address and the letter from the solicitor managed to be sent to my home address!

Even if this letter was sent to the incorrect address, that is the only communication sent with no follow-ups and no emails. 

I’m happy to pay the outstanding amount obviously, but the additional charges seem very excessive, especially with no attempt to contact me to even let me know how to pay at my correct address until sending this demand. 

I’m currently trying to find out how I do need to pay the ground rent and then planning to pay the outstanding amount and then challenging the additional charges. 

My questions therefore are: 
Is this the correct approach? I’m assuming by paying the outstanding ground rent it minimises my risk of forfeiture of the lease and then I can challenge the other amounts?

Would I have any chance of success challenging the costs? I’m aware even when they’re unfair it’s often not worth the time/cost to challenge them, which these companies often rely on.

And if I am challenging them should I get my own solicitor? Or just deal with it myself? 

Any advice would be very much appreciated! 

eddddy

The standard advice is to start by paying the full amount (ground rent + admin charges + solicitors fees) under protest.

That will stop more charges and fees being added.

Then you can take your time constructing your case that the charges/fees are unreasonable, and take your freeholder/landlord to tribunal - and hopefully get some of the charges/fees back.

sansgosh said:

In this period the leaseholder/landlord changed but I received no communication of the change, who I needed to pay or how to pay it. 

I assume you mean the freeholder/landlord changed.

There's a lot of legislation around this. For example...

• You probably should have received a section 5 notice from the old landlord telling you that the freehold was to be transferred

• You should have received a section 3 notice telling you there was a new landlord

• You should have received ground rent demands (Ground rent is not payable unless it is demanded.)

Then there's the question of where these documents where sent. i.e. To the flat or to your correspondence address?

Did you give the previous landlord written instructions about where to send documents?

sansgosh

eddddy said:

The standard advice is to start by paying the full amount (ground rent + admin charges + solicitors fees) under protest.

That will stop more charges and fees being added.

Then you can take your time constructing your case that the charges/fees are unreasonable, and take your freeholder/landlord to tribunal - and hopefully get some of the charges/fees back.

sansgosh said:

In this period the leaseholder/landlord changed but I received no communication of the change, who I needed to pay or how to pay it. 

I assume you mean the freeholder/landlord changed.

There's a lot of legislation around this. For example...

• You probably should have received a section 5 notice from the old landlord telling you that the freehold was to be transferred

• You should have received a section 3 notice telling you there was a new landlord

• You should have received ground rent demands (Ground rent is not payable unless it is demanded.)

Then there's the question of where these documents where sent. i.e. To the flat or to your correspondence address?

Did you give the previous landlord written instructions about where to send documents?

Thanks for this. 

I had read elsewhere that paying the solicitor fees meant that you wouldn’t be able to challenge them later - I’m guessing that’s not correct?

Yeah sorry meant freeholder/landlord changed. 

Previously my ground rent and service charge were paid through a management company. This then changed to a new management company who took on the service charge and I heard nothing about ground rent. The previous management company had my forwarding address (and I assume it must have been passed on as the solicitors somehow have it). 

So if there was ever a demand for ground rent it was sent to the flat rather than the forwarding address, which I would assume was passed on to them. And as I didn’t even know they existed I struggle to see how I reasonably could have done anything more!

eddddy

sansgosh said:

I had read elsewhere that paying the solicitor fees meant that you wouldn’t be able to challenge them later - I’m guessing that’s not correct?

The solicitors fees should be treated as 'Leasehold Administration Charges' which are added to your Service Charge.

And you can challenge unreasonable Administration Charges/Service Charges.

(Sometimes 'dodgy' companies try to get around this by describing fees as something other than 'Leasehold Administration Charges'.  So if it's not clear, you can say that you're paying on the basis that it is a 'Leasehold Administration Charge'.)

sansgosh said:

Previously my ground rent and service charge were paid through a management company. This then changed to a new management company who took on the service charge and I heard nothing about ground rent. The previous management company had my forwarding address (and I assume it must have been passed on as the solicitors somehow have it). 

If...

• You told the previous management company / freeholder in writing that you wanted ground rent bills sent to your forwarding address

• And/or ground rent bills were previously sent to your forwarding address, but the freeholder started sending them to your flat address instead (for no apparent reason)

... it sounds like you might have a strong case for challenging the fees.

You can either try to negotiate with your freeholder, or take them to tribunal.