Being claimed for Ground rent - but i never received the invoice

[NewbieAndy]

Hi,
I own a property (apartment) which i rent out quite recently. I have just received a letter from a solicitor which is claiming that i have not paid my £200 Ground rent annual charge to the free hold owner and now wants to charge me admin fees late payment fees which total up to £1000 (£500 of which is the solicitors fee for sending me a letter).

I have never received an invoice from the free hold owner for the ground rent as i was receiving invoices for the Apartment service charges quarterly via email from a separate management company which manages that aspect so i had assumed this other management company that handles the ground rent would email me an invoice for the annual cost at some point.

Turns out they had been sending a letter of the invoice to the actual flat that i rent out, and its managed by a letting agency and so i had never received an invoice and had no opportunity to pay as i was never aware of the invoice. (they sent the first annual charge invoice in January 2020 apparently and then subsequently 1 a month till march apparently to the apartment)

I'm happy to pay the ground rent but not the accompanying additional late payment fee's and now a solicitor cost on top. What legal standing do i have to refuse payment and take it to court? ( if i never received it, but it was only sent to the property which i rent out)

Thanks for any help or pointers or even advice!










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[des8]

*Does your lease mention an administration charge in these circumstances?*

Have you previously informed the freeholder in writing of an alternative correspondence (which must be in England or Wales)? If not then the delay in your receiving your mail is no defence.

[NewbieAndy]

Hi Des,

Thanks for your response.

I'll have a look over my lease today and I've just got in touch with my solicitor who ran the exchange of the flat to me to assess if they had provided all my correspondence details to each of the management companies.

My question then is, If my solicitor had provided the relevant correspondence details for me to the management agencies and as a result they still only sent the invoice as a letter via post to the actual flat as opposed to the correspondence address, would i still be liable for non payment and subject to their administration charges and solicitor fee's for chasing me for payment?*

As said im fine with paying the ground rent, and i would have had they sent me the invoice, but this is the first i heard of it when i was told i hadn;t paid and now being charged administration charges and solicitor legal fees for chasing, when they found my email address.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Thanks,

Andy




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[R0b]

If the lease says they must invoice you to the address you've given or any other address notified to them then it's unlikely that they will be able to charge you because the notice was invalid. It will be down to you to prove that notice was given and if the solicitor dealing with the lease was negligent then you could have recourse against that solicitor.

Either way, your starting point is to check what the lease says around notices and ground rent.*

[NewbieAndy]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that.

I have reviewed the exchange documents and although it doesn't say specifically i have to be invoiced at my home address, it does state my contact address within the lease and the landlord in question.

Within this lease (attached - redacted) it states the management company which collects the service fee, but doesn't mention the management company which collects the ground rent which is the management company which is now pursuing me.

Given this lease document states my name and address, is this ground to say that the management company that sent the invoices to the actual property as opposed to my home address is in the wrong and gives me grounds to say its not valid to charge me administration charges as well legal costs to chase non payment of a ground rent invoice which was wrongly sent to the actual property which means i had no opportunity to ever receive the actual invoice in order to pay it.

Thanks for any advice and help.

Andy











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[NewbieAndy]

Hi All,

Any help with my latest post?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

[des8]

Whilst waiting for R0b it seems to me that if your lease states a contact address that is the address your landlord and his agents should use.
If they decide to send elsewhere that is their error and they should not be charging you for it

[R0b]

Sorry, I will try to take a look today

[NewbieAndy]

Great if you can provide any advice that would be great from a legal stand point as im hoping to go back to the management companies solicitor today in regards to this matter and hopefully they will stand down.

Thanks,

Andy

[R0b]

That document you've uploaded doesn't say anything other than agreeing to comply with the covenants in the lease. It says nothing about paying ground rent so that document isn't really helpful.*

I think we need to see the exact provisions that talks about paying ground rent and probably the notice clause too. If you don't know where that is then I would suggest uploading a full copy of the lease (redacted) and we can have a look for you.

IF there is absolutely nothing in the lease that talks about giving notices to you - which I would find highly surprising but still possible, then you could argue that the ground rent should have been sent to your actual address listed on that Schedule 7.

[NewbieAndy]

Hi Rob,

The only section which mentions the payment of ground rent and other service charges are attached not much mention in this schedule around the address they should send any invoices to.

The seventh schedule is where it mentions my address.

I have 'title deeds' and 'Notice of transfer' documents which again states my address but doesn't necessarily mention that this is where all correspondence has to go to if that helps?

Do you think it will help if i posted the entire lease doc its 24 pages (i dont have the copy with me its at another address so someone would have to take pictures and send it to me with the lockdown going on).

Thanks,

Andy

[R0b]

So there's nothing really there to suggest they have to invoice you to a specific address. What you are looking for in the lease is something that talks about invoicing and where those invoices should be sent to or if there isn't anything then you should be looking for a notices clause which says where notices are to be sent to, either the property contained in the lease or another address as notified from time to time.

If there's absolutely nothing in there that talks about either of the above, then I would think that the address listed in Schedule 7 would be the one that notices must be sent to.

[NewbieAndy]

Hi,

I went back with the attached documents and mentioned why the invoice was never sent to the address detailed in the documents and instead sent to the actual flat and that we want to get this resolved and happy to pay the service charge but not the accompanying fines and legal fees.

They have come back and agreed to drop all fine and fees and let me pay as per request.

So all sorted.

Thanks,

Andy

[des8]

good outcome and thanks for the update