Management fee overpayment

staplr44

I have just managed to reduce my costs to the managment company where I live as I spotted the lease excludes my flat from paying charges for the rental costs of extra land used for parking for the flats, and leased to the management company by a third party. My flat does not use this land but has use of parking behind the flats, not the extra rented land. I have lived here for 19 years and always paid a monthly amount that included the part cost of the rental land. Managing agent has recently changed and this is how the anomaly has come to light,as am no longer charged that amount. Have I a claim against the previous managing agent for the extra I have paid since 2007? If so, how do I go about it?

El_Torro

I would have thought that your claim should be against the freeholder, not the previous management company. The management company acts on behalf of the freeholder, now that the old management company is gone they shouldn't be involved in any claim you make.

I would speak to the current management company about it first, though they may be unwilling to give you a straight answer. While the current management company is not at fault I would have thought they would be involved in managing any claims between you and the freeholder.

Sam_666

No, you can only claim back up to 6 years.
How? You write to MC a letter outlining what you said in your post.

eddddy

Sam_666 said

No, you can only claim back up to 6 years.

It's more likely to be 12 years - because the agreement to pay service charges was part of the lease, and the lease was signed as a deed.

@staplr44 - Let's say you successfully claimed back the overcharge for the last 12 years. That means that other leaseholders have been undercharged for the last 12 years.

So the management company would have to send bills to the other leaseholders demanding they they pay 12 years worth of under payments - but that's not really your problem.

But FWIW, in spite of the above, I've seen at least one tribunal case where the judge said it was unreasonable to challenge service charges from many years ago. The judge said the leaseholder should have challenged them at the time.

But a judge would make a decision based on the specific facts of each case - so a judge might decide differently in your case.

staplr44 said

Have I a claim against the previous managing agent for the extra I have paid since 2007? If so, how do I go about it?

If there are 2 parties on your lease (Freeholder and Leaseholder) - then your claim is likely to be against your freeholder.

If there are 3 parties on your lease (Freeholder, Management Company and Leaseholder) - then your claim is likely to be against your current Management Company - and not the previous management company.

You can start by writing a letter. Ultimately you can take them to tribunal.