LVT – Service charge

I suggest the group finds itself a legal advisor, each chipping in say £100 would buy you all quite a lot of advice from a Direct Access Barrister. See >>> http://www.cotswoldbarristers.co.uk/
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Hi Rony,

Non payment of service charges can produce a breach in the T and C’s of your mortgage conditions.

My advice would be to phone the management company and speak to a senior Property Manager, explaining the situation and saying that you will pay the service charges, subject to the outcome of the LVT.

If the LVT finds in your favour, then you would expect to receive a refund, or for the excess funds to be held on your account as a credit.

If you don’t take action, the amount starts to add up as they add fees for debt collection etc.

Phone the management company, get an agreement, and then put it all in writing to them so you create the necessary paper trail.

Hope that helps?

Tread carefully, it could be considered safest to pay and then fight, withholding is a very tricky path to follow.

I believe that if the possible costs are not notified within 18 months they are not recoverable, however the notification can be very vague and still be valid.

I have heard the opinion that you should make the case with one LH first as this reduces the opportunity for a legal fees feeding frenzy. Too late for that…

Can you join the existing action, 40 of them must have paid for some advice already, or at least make sure you are included in the part that asks for legal charges not to be put on the service charges (s20.c ?).

Dear Rony,

I would be happy to look at a copy of the demand and then have a free 15 min telephone discussion with you about your options.

There is certainly strength in numbers for any situation such as this, so it would be helpful to gather the lessees who have not gone to the LVT together.

Please email me via my profile.

Thank you all for the interesting comments.I already sent an application to join the LVT case i am waiting for approve.Our building is from 2010 and on the two previous LVT cases we won and got a credit for that,last month we paid Service Charge for six month and we got a rise of almost 60% for an extra costs(boilers issue) and now they asked an excess Service Charge for 2011-2012 with now explanation and when we tray to contact them by the phone or by email they avoid us.

Regards,Rony Aga

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law)” at “16/06/2014 – 20:17“:

Thank you Mark I’ll contact you.

Regards,Rony Aga

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “16/06/2014 – 15:50“:

Rony, I have suffered the same problems with 2 landlords, and the law says you must pay first, then go to the FTT. However, you are legally entitled under s22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to inspect all the invoices and documentation which supports the Service Charge.

You mention boiler work accounted for a significant amount. Did the landlord send you the requisite notice and obtain quotes to have the work done?

Reply to the comment left by “Lou Valdini” at “18/06/2014 – 16:02“:

Lou hello
Thank you for your comment,until now we suffer a luck of communication with the management company so we don’t have the documents that support the excess service charge and That is way we join the LVT case,regards the boiler work the landlord didn’t sent me the requisite notice to obtain quotes to have the work done i was in a hurry to pay that extra service charge because of this emergency situation i lost a tenant that said that he want to renew the contract for one more year but a week before the and of the previous tenancy agreement he decided to leave because of the hitting problem but my letting agent find very quick a new tenant so i didn’t suffer from a void period.

You have rights – now what is it the youngsters say – ROTFLMAO!

http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/faq.asp?item=29

Reply to the comment left by “Chris Amis” at “19/06/2014 – 09:39“:

Thank you Chris i appreciate that.