Late mother's property finally sold after 2 years. Queries about paying off debts

WSW

Hi all,

My mothers passed October 13 2022. 
She had enough savings on her pension fund to cover her funeral. Which was all paid.

She had debts with:
Eon (gas and electric)
South West Water
North Devon District Council (tax)
Halifax Credit Card
Barclays Higher Finance
Property management agency (the property's a flat, and this is the maintenance charges).

These total about £10k.

The property sold for £170k.

The property management company has provided a breakdown of costs. Which mostly seem fine. However, there's an additional charge of £350.
When asked what it was they said:

"It was whilst we were not receiving funds from your mothers flat we had to raise additional funds from the other leaseholders to make sure the running of the block could continue without having to get heavy handed with you during your grieving process. Payment of this amount will put you back on parity with the other leaseholders."

Is this normal?

For the gas, electric, and water, will they calculate the amount owing from meter readings? Will they be sending someone out to read them? As I assume they would be estimating usage since?

Flugelhorn

it depends - you need some more info:

was this the other leaseholders effectively paid your share while you / the estate weren't paying OR was this an extra cost for some other work that was done to the block outside the normal management charges and paid for by all the leaseholders? In either way the estate would be liable. 

you need to take the readings on the meters before you leave the flat 

WSW

Thank you - I have taken photos of the meter readings.

There was no money in the estate to pay for the flat's mothly management charges.
So as soon as money was in the estate it would be paid. As the only was of getting money into the estate was by selling the flat, we've had to wait (2 years) for the flat to finally sell.

As the estate had no money, would they have been able to get "heavy handed" (as they put it) with me?
As I'm one of the two executor's of the estate. 
There's 6 flats in the block, each paying an equal management charge.

There was no extra work outside the normal management charges.  

Flugelhorn

WSW said:

Thank you - I have taken photos of the meter readings.

There was no money in the estate to pay for the flat's mothly management charges.
So as soon as money was in the estate it would be paid. As the only was of getting money into the estate was by selling the flat, we've had to wait (2 years) for the flat to finally sell.

As the estate had no money, would they have been able to get "heavy handed" (as they put it) with me?
As I'm one of the two executor's of the estate. 
There's 6 flats in the block, each paying an equal management charge.

There was no extra work outside the normal management charges.  

they would only have been able to demand payment off the estate - the problem when you only have 6 flats is that if one person isn't paying it gets hard to cover the bills. Maybe the other 5 did all pay up a bit more to ensure that things carried on.
  I can't see that they can now charge you more if you are now paying back the debt, unless there is some interest charge or other - I guess you need to get more clarification from them 

TripleH

Ask for a breakdown of what the £350 is made up of.

I would pay everything but the £350 BUT in the letter asking for a breakdown, state you are deferring payment of the £350 until you get a full breakdown / clarification of that amount.

The amount could be genuine or a Mickley mouse fee. It is 291.67 without VAT so looks like it might be for multiple items?

Marcon

WSW said:

Hi all,

My mothers passed October 13 2022. 
She had enough savings on her pension fund to cover her funeral. Which was all paid.

She had debts with:
Eon (gas and electric)
South West Water
North Devon District Council (tax)
Halifax Credit Card
Barclays Higher Finance
Property management agency (the property's a flat, and this is the maintenance charges).

These total about £10k.

The property sold for £170k.

The property management company has provided a breakdown of costs. Which mostly seem fine. However, there's an additional charge of £350.
When asked what it was they said:

"It was whilst we were not receiving funds from your mothers flat we had to raise additional funds from the other leaseholders to make sure the running of the block could continue without having to get heavy handed with you during your grieving process. Payment of this amount will put you back on parity with the other leaseholders."

Is this normal?

For the gas, electric, and water, will they calculate the amount owing from meter readings? Will they be sending someone out to read them? As I assume they would be estimating usage since?

Normal? I think it's rare to get something which is worded in such human terms, and I commend them for it! I imagine some of the £350 will be interest on late payment of the management charges, which is entirely standard, but for your own peace of mind ask them to confirm.

If the flat has now been sold, what happened about the meters at the time of completion?