Disputing service charges

[Csimms]

Hi all,

just want some advice on how to tackle the council over disputed service charges. I have now been fighting the council for about 5years regarding unreasonable charges for a unreasonable service. I have written to them, met with them and tried my hardest to sort out the dispute with no response from them for years. They have consistently failed in their customer sevices, admin and management of the property and as a landlord. I owe just under 5k and they ave not tried at all to talk about the issues, negotiate or discuss in detail anything to do with my disputes apart from a meeting that came to no agreement as the people in the meeting didn't have te authority to make any decisions. They investigated my dispute and very quickly came to the decision that for the last 5 years they have provided the service they are contracted too. No evidence or proof went with their decision although I requested details of the investigation.

THey have now passed to their solicitors and have starting court proceedings but I have managed to get them to now agree to mediation. I can't understand why they have now agreed to this after issuing court proceedings and not before. I also can not understand why they have aloud this to o n as long as it has without answering any of my letters, etc. they have already had to void one bill of £970 due to them not responding to my request or details. I need assistance in what I will need to provide if tha goes to court an the best way to approach it. I ave th feeling that they are just doing mediation just to show willing to the courts ??????

please help I feel I may be out of my depth if it goes to court but can not afford a solicitor.


thanks

[Celestine]

Re: Disputing service charges

They've agreed to mediation at this stage because, as part of the court process (allocation stage) mediation is offered as an option and it is usually sensible to pursue this so as to not be deemed unreasonable or inflexible to the Court.

What does the 5k debt relate to exactly? Property maintenance? If so, was this done by a third party contractor or by council staff direct? Why do you dispute the charges? Have other neighbours had similar problems?

[Csimms]

Re: Disputing service charges

Hi there,

thanks for your reply, I thought that would be the case with the mediation. Although I had suggested mediation before they auctioned their solicitors and they never agreed to it. I hope this looks good for me in court. The 5k is for service charges including caretaking, management fees, admin fees, communal t.v, communal lighting etc. I believe that some of the duties are carried out by Newham staff but the ground maintenance is done by what they call Newham homes, not sure if they are Newham staff or a third party?????

i don't know if anbody else complained about the charges, I know a lot of the neighbours in the area and n our block were not happy with the charges and were struggling to pay them. Unfortunately I no longer live in the property as I have it on a guaranteed rental scheme with Newham council so that I can afford to keep the property.

the solicitor now wants me to provide details of the disputes so that he can go to Newham and see if we can meet and sort this out, if not then mediation then court. The court have given us until march 23rd to come to an agreement but we are still awaiting a mediation date from the free mediation service.

I really don't want to go to court but will not back down from this as they are providing a unreasonable service for a unreasonable amount. They can be as reasonable as they want now but I can prove their failings and incompetence over the last five years that this has been going on. They have not attempted to solve any of my disputes throughout this time and then when I arranged a meeting with them (which I requested) they investigated it within a week or so and came back and said I owe the money and have 14 days to pay it or court action will be started. Why didn't they chase this years ago or solve the disputed years ago when the account was only in arrears by one year instead of five years. They have no reason to have left it for so long and not answer me.

please help.........advice is really needed.

thanks

[Csimms]

Re: Disputing service charges

Can anybody help me with the above post

[PlanB]

Re: Disputing service charges

I'm guessing from your first post that you have a service charge issue because you are a leaseholder and not a tenant of your Local Authority. Council tenants don't normally pay service charges but correct me if I'm wrong.

If I'm right then the court normally orders these cases to be transferred to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for a Decision at the Allocation Questionnare stage. The tribunal process is more informal than a court and they have more discretion to decide on the "reasonableness and payability" of service charges regardless of what it says in your lease. The LVT Decision is binding on both parties but only the court can enforce the outcome. You can read about it on this website but it had some broken links a few minutes ago so you may have to try again later:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/forms/hmct...ntial-property

The Leasehold Advisory Service has a helpline you can ring on 0207 383 9800 to speak to a legal advisor or look at their website for background on your legal right to challenge your service charges here:

http://www.lease-advice.org/publicat...nt.asp?item=18

I'm not sure whether the court expects you go to Mediation before the Tribunal so please ask the advisors on the helpline in which order this should happen. They are very customer friendly and slightly biased against Landlords (unofficially obviously)