Anyone had dealings with Ladybrook Securities / Ashby Breweries claiming ground rent?

Hunting_Tucker

This company sent me out a section 146 property act, illegally, they had no right in doing...prior to this i tried to contact this con of a company to pay the £21.00 i owed..but theyre was no correspondence contact at all..i written to them..NO REPLY..they are using bullying tactics to extort money out of you..ILLEGALLY...Remember folks if you owe ground rent which is less than 3 years old..and under the value of £350...then they CANNOT..send you ant kind of property act..My solicitors are investigating and also other agencies are looking into this firm...

parasite_exterminater

I advise anyone who considers they are or have been treated unfairly by this company now or in the past too contact Hampshire police and ask too be put through too the fraud squad, they can be contacted by dialling 101, as my learned friend tucker hunter correctly states a section 146 notice can not be served unless the amount owing is in excess of £350 and is owed for over 3 years, section 167 of the commonhold and leasehold reform act 2002, this company deliberately drives people in too debt by not providing a method of payment or contact details, the address is not adequate as they do not reply too any letters, any correspondence you send use recorded delivery, if you have already paid £60 in charges for a 146 notice claim it back as it was not an administration charge for late payment but for the 146 notice they had no right too serve on you, also claim for the stress and time you spent on the issue, they came after you for money, you are in the clear, now go after them.

parasite_exterminater

sorry bgruncorn only saw your post last night too late too give you any advice , how did you go on in court if you went, or are you still waiting too hear, you can request your case too be moved too somewhere local, and if there is an appeal against decision let me know, what ever the outcome can you post it on here too guide others, thank you.

Chrispayne_2

Can anyone help? We own our flat but our leaseholder is Ashby's Brewery who are the same Ladybrook. They won't let us have our own building insurance but have never (despite us repeatedly requesting) given us a copy of the policy. Tonight we have a water emergency that has required us to contact the building insurers. Which we can't. We also can't call Ashby's as there isn't a number. South East Water have disconnected us now as the water has caused so much damage. We can't live here now and have no way of getting it sorted without paying for it all ourselves. We called Aviva who they said the insurance is with and they have no record of the policy :-(

RAS

parasite_exterminater wrote: »

I advise anyone who considers they are or have been treated unfairly by this company now or in the past too contact Hampshire police and ask too be put through too the fraud squad, they can be contacted by dialling 101,

It look like Hampshire Police may have contact details?

SpencerH

Hi, I have also recently had a letter from Ladybrook Securities requesting rent charge money. I checked in my deeds and the charge is greater than suggested (although still a very nominal sum) and the owner of the charge in the deeds is registered as an unrelated company. I have written back requesting proof they are now the legal owners so will see what happens...

It all looks very dodgy - the lack of email / telephone contact or payment information. I suspect the idea is that people ignore the demands and then get hit with extra, more lucrative charges.

I have a friend who is an investigative journalist and would be keen to look into this and expose thier practices. But they will need other people to go on the record with their experiences. Would anyone be willing to do this?

I notice the company was mentioned in parliament some years back (search Ladybrook Securities + Hansard) yet are still going - they need to be made to adopt more transparent practices! I am appalled about the story about the home insurance Chrispayne posted above.

hell_hound

hello been watching this company for months they moved into my area last march and have upset some of my friends and neighbours with their threats, they are con merchants they can not serve 146 notices for the correct reasons given above, and you should take the advice about contacting hampshire police fraud squad, also contact first-tier tribunal on 0161 2379491 if you are in the north west, or ask them for your local office, chrispayne ladybrook and ashbys brewery are not the same they are both limited companies, do not understand what your insurance has too do with them, are you paying them the premium instead of the insurance company, you say they stated aviiva has the insurance but on enquiring they have not, my advice is contact the insurance ombudsman who I think will advise you too contact the police, in any case contact hampshire police I found them very helpful, ladybrook served three 146 notices too my knowledge in my area, two refused too pay the extra charges of sixty pounds and heard nothing more from ladybrook, one had an ordinary court summons although ladybrook said at first it was a 146, they knew they could not enforce that, so they went for the sixty pounds as an administration fee, didn't do them any good as the court offered twenty one pounds which was owed, so ladybook are now pursuing the issue in an ordinary county court in the north west, been going on since march and the householder has heard nothing, so that proves the 146 notice means nothing, we have a lot of information about ladybrook but have put it on hold until this case has been heard, spencer h unless it states in your deeds they can increase the rent charge they can not increase it, make sure any letters you write go recorded and yes they are setting you up for late payment charges, write too your member of parliament and lets get it raised again, talk with your neighbours and form groups that what we are doing and lets get rid of this parasite, he has not got the nerve too even write on here but one thing is sure he is reading it, keep you posted and keep the comments coming the more the better.

sawebs

I got a similar letter for a house I rent out. They had recently bought the freehold and hadn't bothered to enquire whether the owners correspondence address was different to the property address. They had added on penalties for non payment even though I had never seen a bill. I wrote to them and told them to do one, and they have never mentioned it since.

itscrisp

Hi Everyone

First of all, Chrispayne's story is absolutely sickening! I hope you managed to sort something out, even if it meant going down to the address in Southampton where these people are. My heart goes out to you.

The Chief Rent/Rent Charge company for the house has recently changed from Balfour & Co (which it's been with for decades, I think even since the house was built) to Ladybrook. We only knew this when we received a really shoddy looking letter from Ladybrook (like a 5-year old had just wizzed it off their laptop!) stating the annual rent hadn't been paid and could it be done so without further delay. No letter from Balfour prior to this stating they were no longer to be the Chief Rent company, and no letter from Ladybrook prior to this introducing themselves, which I would have thought would be pretty standard practice, no, given that who's to say the letter is even legitimate? Anyhow, a quick google maps search shows the address refers to a residential housing development so my guess is, this is just a one-man-band kind of company who probably doesn't have a business telephone line and doesn't want to give out his home phone number hence no contact number. Tight !!!!.

Google also yielded this result which surprisingly has plenty of information about the company, albeit probably pretty useless to us: endole.co.uk/company/00860478/ladybrook-securities-limited

The company appears to have been around a long time, had several directors (although it's unclear whether they're all family and have just carried the business on). It can also be seen that Ladybrook is affiliated to several other companies.

Anyway, it looks as if this company is legit, although I believe at the very least we should have been sent correspondance from both Rent Companies when the change over happened. I also think it is just plain rude and pretty disgusting that this company don't have the common decency to respond to letters or make themselves easily contactable - fair do's they're not making that much money from individual small annual rents, but all added up (and looking at their accounts) they do alright for themselves. Have they not heard of email - they could save themselves a fortune in letters, printing and postage and get a much faster response from people. If they do not wish to conduct their business in an even half decent way, they shouldn't be in business!

Ironically, the ps. on the reminder letter (yes, no annual invoice ever received in relation to this year) says "we recommend paying by standing order in the future." Pretty impossible given that no contact or bank details were given. I wish you all luck in your quest with these a*holes. Much love

Brody1975

Just keeping this thread alive about these jokers by sharing my own experience and seeing if anyone has had similar problems.

Like many people I owe ground rent to Ladybrook on a yearly basis. It's minimal and was handled by a diffrent company until three years ago.

Anyway, long story short just about to finish remortgaging and turn mine into a buy to let. Throughout the process Ladybrook have, surprise surprise, not responded to myself or the solicitors, save for when they had the cheek to ask for a fee to reply to said solicitor's letter! They held the whole thing up by not responding and I'm quite simply at a loss to understand how they can keep trading. I have also requested a fee from them so I can by the freehold so I don't have to deal with them any further but no reply. Anyone in or been in a similar situation? I should add too that my house was also previously the responsibility of Balfour and Co when it came to ground rent.