Service charges

PJKnightley

 Some leaseholders in my block haven't paid their service charges for quite a while and it's amounting to £10,000's. The management company have demanded the other leaseholders pay the difference. I pay all my service charges in full and it's very unfair the prompt payers have to pay for their mess. I told them in March I wasn't paying the extra they have now sent me a bill plus penalties and they are saying if I don't they will take me to court. Do I have to pay it legally? Thanks for your help.

itsthelittlethings

That is ridiculous, not sure where they stand legally but it doesn’t sound right.

MyRealNameToo

PJKnightley said:

 Some leaseholders in my block haven't paid their service charges for quite a while and it's amounting to £10,000's. The management company have demanded the other leaseholders pay the difference. I pay all my service charges in full and it's very unfair the prompt payers have to pay for their mess. I told them in March I wasn't paying the extra they have now sent me a bill plus penalties and they are saying if I don't they will take me to court. Do I have to pay it legally? Thanks for your help.

As always, what does your lease say?

daveyjp

Any questions such as this can only be answered from the clauses in the lease.

Chief_of_Staffy

Unless your lease states that you must pay for everybody else in the event they can't be bothered, which it doesn't, then you don't pay.

eddddy

PJKnightley said:

 Some leaseholders in my block haven't paid their service charges for quite a while and it's amounting to £10,000's. The management company have demanded the other leaseholders pay the difference. I pay all my service charges in full and it's very unfair the prompt payers have to pay for their mess. I told them in March I wasn't paying the extra they have now sent me a bill plus penalties and they are saying if I don't they will take me to court. Do I have to pay it legally? Thanks for your help.

As others say, you pay what your lease says you should pay.

If other leaseholders haven't paid, the management company should be taking legal action against the "non-payers". Ask the management company why they're not doing this.

What kind of management company is it? A "proper" professional management company, or a bunch of amateur leaseholders or something else?

HelpfulLittleHelper

what happens if you say i'll stop paying completely, do they then just add your chunk to the others who are paying? what a nonsense reason to split the gap between those that pay properly... tell them to jog on

eddddy

PJKnightley said:

 Some leaseholders in my block haven't paid their service charges for quite a while and it's amounting to £10,000's. The management company have demanded the other leaseholders pay the difference. I pay all my service charges in full and it's very unfair the prompt payers have to pay for their mess. I told them in March I wasn't paying the extra they have now sent me a bill plus penalties and they are saying if I don't they will take me to court. Do I have to pay it legally? Thanks for your help.

I guess my concern would be that it seems like somebody has seriously misunderstood something.

Either the management company has seriously misunderstood the law, or you have seriously misunderstood what your service charge bill is for.

The risk is that, if you've misunderstood what your service charge bill is for, and it's legitimate and you don't pay it - you might end up having 'late fees', solicitors fees, debt collectors fees, etc added to it. That could add hundreds, or eventually thousands of pounds to your bill.

Hence my earlier question about whether the management company are a professional company, or some amateur leaseholders (who might not understand the law).