Can we counter admin fee with our own fees for replying?

I couldn’t find anything in relation to this type of counter fee on the Leasehold Advisory Service site >> https://www.lease-advice.org/

Hi Des,
I’m not a lawyer but have several years of dealing with commercial agreements. I have sympathy with your points. Much depends on the legal agreement itself but fundamentally you seem to be saying that you incurred expense because the FH did not undertake work that you consider they should have done and, as a consequence, you did the work and incurred expense as a result of their failure. Worth a try. However there are many contracts where one party doesn’t do what you expect and you have to prove their failure – in the insurance sphere (as an example). Still its a negotiation and in my opinion you have a point worth pushing. Unfortunately there are many FH agreements where all the FH’s costs are simply passed on to the LHs.

Dear Des

I share Mike’s view and also sympathise with your position. From the point of view of a professional (who charges for time) then we would not do very much work without establishing who is going to pay us. Often we get a fee undertaking, if fees are to be met by a third party, of signed terms of business when acting for a client.

If there was no advance agreement is is unlikely that any claim you make will be successful, unless the freeholder is sympathetic to what you have done.

I get involved (as a chartered surveyor) in compensation claims and find it increasingly difficult to get payments agreed even when they are due. There is a view that owning and occupying property comes with some obligations that cannot always be costed or compensated.

If the sums are great then maybe see a lawyer, but litigation is expensive and litigation with no contract is not for the nervous.

Good luck. The freeholder did not agree to be penalised for his or his agent’s bad performance. Lease agreements are as one sided as the feudal times they were drawn up in. How something from almost 100 years ago is still considered fit for purpose is beyond me.

Best option:
Abolish leasehold petition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/238071

This is the support from the Law Commission to move from leasehold to commonhold
https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/the-time-is-right-for-commonhold-announce-law-commission/
Commonhold consultation closes 10 March https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/commonhold/

Right to manage consultation closes 30 April
https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/right-to-manage/#right-to-manage-consultation

Further information – some groups fighting for change
https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/
https://nationalleaseholdcampaign.org/

Thanks for the response everyone,
Our lease states that “any fees have to be fair reasonable and in proportion, ” this we believe they are certainly not. We have requested a full transparent breakdown of the admin charges, so far non have been forthcoming.
We have dealt with the issues relating to our demise that brought us extra expense, via contractors surveyors and loss Assessors etc.
We have been presented with an admin fee for what we believe is for responding to questions and reporting maintenance issues outside of our demise. We have doucumented this and would like to present this along with our charge to the FH, After taking further advice.
Thanks again for the kind advice.