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Dear all,
Last time i was here you guys really help me resolve some issues, thank you so much.
Now i have a new one.
A very close friend of mine has a problem with an estate agents.
She is from russia but has been in this country for six years. just finished her masters.
On top of her normal job she also manages some properties for a russian client.
the properties were bought outright less than a year ago and one was a new build...well it was newly refurbed from a hotel to flats. he paid over 1.8 million for both.
here is the problem.
She received a bill ( for the client) for sertvice charges in one of the flats. she thought these were well over the top as just the admin on the bill was in excess of £3000
she wrote to the agent for an explanation and to have the bill broken down.
They expected to pay some sort of service charge but not for 2 years. ( this needs to be confirmed from the cotract which is in russia. The client doesnt speak russian) also the charge was an extortionate amount. There wasnt any warning of this service charge and when they first heard about it the letter was just a simple printout. very unprofessional.
this was the reply. Very racist which upset my friend to the point of tears.
Where can we go from here.???
Dear MRS M
We in England do not appreciate the manner in which your note is couched. I have not the least interest in what you may do as extra work
We do however, dislike it when a Foreigner who manifestly has no comprehension of how to communicate in a socially acceptable manner, chooses
to do so in such an aggressive way. For all I know you may be the offspring of an Oligarch and lived in the lap of luxury on the riches which they have screwed out of the Russian People.
On the other hand you may be a simple girl fleeing the disagreeable environment of a dictatorial state
in which, if you find yourself in opposition to the current dictatorship, you are eliminated. You would also presumably be glad to escape the drab surroundings of Soviet architecture
Whatever ! I have forced myself to respond to your note below and you will there find my answers to your questions. We have taken the opportunity to attach Mr P’s current statement for immediate payment. We have also for your information attached a copy of our usual contract which will
give you some idea of how we perpetrate the Highway Robbery you so easily accuse us of
below is also his reply. included is the letter she sent to him along with his answers
they have ant legal stand point. [
Sent: 26 January 2009 11:03[/font]
To:
Subject: Service Charges - [/font]
To whom it may concern,
As you know, ?? Place was purchased by MR P in the beginning of 2008. I am taking care of all of Mr. P's affairs in UK (contract attached).
I have recently received your invoice for the service charges. The owner requested me to obtain all the details from you regarding your involvement as a managing agent of ??? Place.
Neither Mr.P, the current tenant, or I received any documentation or communication from yourselves or anyone else regarding the managing contract that you took on, or the services you claimed to provide. Consequently Mr. Popov needs to see all the relevant documentation and understand your company’s decision making process.
Some of the questions:
1Who signed the property management contract with TLC Property Management? In our lease (and in your letter) the managing agent is ’30 Collingham Place Management Ltd’ who you say is now trading. Then why are we meant to be paying service charges to the 'TLC Property Management' bank account not the account of '30 Collingham Place Ltd'?
30 Collingham Place ltd is the Company that owns the Freehold of the Property. All the leaseholders have a share in the Company. It is a dormant company that does not trade or make a Profit. It's sole purpose is to hold the freehold. This facilitates the Purchase and sale of flats. The Managing Agent Notes the Change of ownership and cancels the Vendor's Share Certificate and sends the Purchaser a new one. The Management Company is a seperate Company (ie: Ourselves- TLC Property Management, who are Mandated by the Freeholder, at the time of Selling the Flats, to Manage the Building.) We have attached a copy of our Mangement agreement which details the tasks the Managing Agent performs. For your information.
2The landlord was not interested in BT line or in Aerial. The tenant herself installed all the devices that she required prior to 5th of November (which is the date on your first letter).
I'm afraid that the way this works in England, when there is a Majority of the leaseholders in agreement with works which affect the building as a whole all the leaseholders make a contribution to the Cost. We were made aware that there was no BT connection to the building. Therefore all the flats were without external Telephone links. This work then, at the request of most of the leaseholders who did need this, was put in hand. Nor was there any provision for T.V. On the same basis this was also installed. Normally both of these things would have been present after a new re-development. It turned out that in this case these things were not provided. We quite properly as Managing Agents advised all the leaseholders and proceded to have these main services installed.
3.[Can you please clarify exactly what work was already carried out and provide all the details, especially:
a.[FONT='Times New Roman','serif'] [/font]describing exactly what was done & why was there a need for it (i.e. carpets changed dues to substantial wear & tear),
providing invoices with all the detailed breakdown of the costs (i.e. major works provision – all the description of every job with the cost & invoices for it),
c what company has carried out the actual job & quotations of the considered providers, and
d.[who authorized/ agreed all the work you have carried out.
Please note that this item is copied below. We will answer this and feel there is no need to repeat the answer below. We are not legally obligated to circulate this information but should any of the leaseholders require to view it in our offices they are entitled to make an appointment and come to our offices during working hours.
4.Please specify which work will need to be carried out for the building, especially:
a describing exactly what was done & why was there a need for it (i.e. carpets changed dues to substantial wear & tear),
b providing invoices with all the detailed breakdown of the costs (i.e. major works provision – all the description of every job with the cost & invoices for it),
c ]what company has carried out the actual job & quotations of the considered providers, and
d Why are there separate: Accountancy, Admin, Management, and Secretarial Fees?
a What is included in each of these fees?
b All together that adds up to £3165 for each flat, it makes £28,485 just for the 'organising' side of things. This is daylight robbery, I personally property manage 3 flats in separate locations, own a company and have a full time job and it doesn't take that much time & money to maintain a freshly renovated building.
What is included in these fees is the following. :
Accountancy: £500.00 for preparing the accounts for the Financial Year end and filing these with Companies House.
Admin and Secretarial go together. This is a contribution of £120.00 per flat for the work involved in preparing all the documentation for the Annual
General Meeting, attending and setting up the meeting with post of all documents to each leaseholder. We also deal with all the purchase and sale of properties within the building. This entails answering Solicitors queries, receiving and registering Charges with the building insurer and accepting and returning Notice of Assignments. For the actual management of the building itself we charge £275.00 per annum per flat. Your comment that this is daylight robbery is not only unnecessarily offensive, but even more so since it is totally inaccurate. The costs above are £275; plus 120; plus £55.5 for the accounting, per flat. This is included in the Service Charge allocated to Flat 7 of £1,880.00. This is a far cry from your exaggerated and inaccurate estimate of £3,165 for each flat. You should if you are aiming to make offensive and wildly exaggerated statements at least get your facts right.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you in advance
Last time i was here you guys really help me resolve some issues, thank you so much.
Now i have a new one.
A very close friend of mine has a problem with an estate agents.
She is from russia but has been in this country for six years. just finished her masters.
On top of her normal job she also manages some properties for a russian client.
the properties were bought outright less than a year ago and one was a new build...well it was newly refurbed from a hotel to flats. he paid over 1.8 million for both.
here is the problem.
She received a bill ( for the client) for sertvice charges in one of the flats. she thought these were well over the top as just the admin on the bill was in excess of £3000
she wrote to the agent for an explanation and to have the bill broken down.
They expected to pay some sort of service charge but not for 2 years. ( this needs to be confirmed from the cotract which is in russia. The client doesnt speak russian) also the charge was an extortionate amount. There wasnt any warning of this service charge and when they first heard about it the letter was just a simple printout. very unprofessional.
this was the reply. Very racist which upset my friend to the point of tears.
Where can we go from here.???
Dear MRS M
We in England do not appreciate the manner in which your note is couched. I have not the least interest in what you may do as extra work
We do however, dislike it when a Foreigner who manifestly has no comprehension of how to communicate in a socially acceptable manner, chooses
to do so in such an aggressive way. For all I know you may be the offspring of an Oligarch and lived in the lap of luxury on the riches which they have screwed out of the Russian People.
On the other hand you may be a simple girl fleeing the disagreeable environment of a dictatorial state
in which, if you find yourself in opposition to the current dictatorship, you are eliminated. You would also presumably be glad to escape the drab surroundings of Soviet architecture
Whatever ! I have forced myself to respond to your note below and you will there find my answers to your questions. We have taken the opportunity to attach Mr P’s current statement for immediate payment. We have also for your information attached a copy of our usual contract which will
give you some idea of how we perpetrate the Highway Robbery you so easily accuse us of
below is also his reply. included is the letter she sent to him along with his answers
they have ant legal stand point. [
Sent: 26 January 2009 11:03[/font]
To:
Subject: Service Charges - [/font]
To whom it may concern,
As you know, ?? Place was purchased by MR P in the beginning of 2008. I am taking care of all of Mr. P's affairs in UK (contract attached).
I have recently received your invoice for the service charges. The owner requested me to obtain all the details from you regarding your involvement as a managing agent of ??? Place.
Neither Mr.P, the current tenant, or I received any documentation or communication from yourselves or anyone else regarding the managing contract that you took on, or the services you claimed to provide. Consequently Mr. Popov needs to see all the relevant documentation and understand your company’s decision making process.
Some of the questions:
1Who signed the property management contract with TLC Property Management? In our lease (and in your letter) the managing agent is ’30 Collingham Place Management Ltd’ who you say is now trading. Then why are we meant to be paying service charges to the 'TLC Property Management' bank account not the account of '30 Collingham Place Ltd'?
30 Collingham Place ltd is the Company that owns the Freehold of the Property. All the leaseholders have a share in the Company. It is a dormant company that does not trade or make a Profit. It's sole purpose is to hold the freehold. This facilitates the Purchase and sale of flats. The Managing Agent Notes the Change of ownership and cancels the Vendor's Share Certificate and sends the Purchaser a new one. The Management Company is a seperate Company (ie: Ourselves- TLC Property Management, who are Mandated by the Freeholder, at the time of Selling the Flats, to Manage the Building.) We have attached a copy of our Mangement agreement which details the tasks the Managing Agent performs. For your information.
2The landlord was not interested in BT line or in Aerial. The tenant herself installed all the devices that she required prior to 5th of November (which is the date on your first letter).
I'm afraid that the way this works in England, when there is a Majority of the leaseholders in agreement with works which affect the building as a whole all the leaseholders make a contribution to the Cost. We were made aware that there was no BT connection to the building. Therefore all the flats were without external Telephone links. This work then, at the request of most of the leaseholders who did need this, was put in hand. Nor was there any provision for T.V. On the same basis this was also installed. Normally both of these things would have been present after a new re-development. It turned out that in this case these things were not provided. We quite properly as Managing Agents advised all the leaseholders and proceded to have these main services installed.
3.[Can you please clarify exactly what work was already carried out and provide all the details, especially:
a.[FONT='Times New Roman','serif'] [/font]describing exactly what was done & why was there a need for it (i.e. carpets changed dues to substantial wear & tear),
providing invoices with all the detailed breakdown of the costs (i.e. major works provision – all the description of every job with the cost & invoices for it),
c what company has carried out the actual job & quotations of the considered providers, and
d.[who authorized/ agreed all the work you have carried out.
Please note that this item is copied below. We will answer this and feel there is no need to repeat the answer below. We are not legally obligated to circulate this information but should any of the leaseholders require to view it in our offices they are entitled to make an appointment and come to our offices during working hours.
4.Please specify which work will need to be carried out for the building, especially:
a describing exactly what was done & why was there a need for it (i.e. carpets changed dues to substantial wear & tear),
b providing invoices with all the detailed breakdown of the costs (i.e. major works provision – all the description of every job with the cost & invoices for it),
c ]what company has carried out the actual job & quotations of the considered providers, and
d Why are there separate: Accountancy, Admin, Management, and Secretarial Fees?
a What is included in each of these fees?
b All together that adds up to £3165 for each flat, it makes £28,485 just for the 'organising' side of things. This is daylight robbery, I personally property manage 3 flats in separate locations, own a company and have a full time job and it doesn't take that much time & money to maintain a freshly renovated building.
What is included in these fees is the following. :
Accountancy: £500.00 for preparing the accounts for the Financial Year end and filing these with Companies House.
Admin and Secretarial go together. This is a contribution of £120.00 per flat for the work involved in preparing all the documentation for the Annual
General Meeting, attending and setting up the meeting with post of all documents to each leaseholder. We also deal with all the purchase and sale of properties within the building. This entails answering Solicitors queries, receiving and registering Charges with the building insurer and accepting and returning Notice of Assignments. For the actual management of the building itself we charge £275.00 per annum per flat. Your comment that this is daylight robbery is not only unnecessarily offensive, but even more so since it is totally inaccurate. The costs above are £275; plus 120; plus £55.5 for the accounting, per flat. This is included in the Service Charge allocated to Flat 7 of £1,880.00. This is a far cry from your exaggerated and inaccurate estimate of £3,165 for each flat. You should if you are aiming to make offensive and wildly exaggerated statements at least get your facts right.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you in advance
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