Should Management Fee be passed onto tenants?

Should Management Fee be passed onto tenants?

11:15 AM, 30th August 2016, About 8 years ago 14

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We have a small portfolio of BTL properties one of which incurs an annual Management Fee which we have paid for the past 10 years, but we are now wondering should this have been an expense passed on to our tenant as she is clearly the ones who has benefited from the services provided? cheque

As an aside we have had the same tenant for the past 7 years and have not increased her rent since March 2009 so it is now, I would imagine, well below the market level.

What do other landlords do?

Many thanks

Denise


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Comments

Adrian Jones

10:56 AM, 1st September 2016, About 8 years ago

Did it not occur to you to contact the solicitor who dealt with the purchase as soon as you received the huge bill?

10:59 AM, 1st September 2016, About 8 years ago

Please ignore response 1
THIS is what I meant to say but my edits timed out (I must learn to compose offline and check properly before posting)

So .... this is what I meant to say:

We were horrified when the huge bill arrived about a year after the purchase (so around 2007-8) and spent many months - maybe even a couple of years - telephoning and writing to the company (Urbanpoint) arguing that we couldn't owe them most of the bill as we'd not owned the property back when most of the bill referred to.
They never replied to our letters, never referenced the content in their subsequent demand letters and you can never speak to the same person on the phone twice.
In the end however we were informed that legally we did owe the debt according to the terms of the contract.
So, after a few more years of them ignoring our letters, sending ever increasing demands and 'forgetting' telephone conversations, plus some input from the Residents Group (other owners on the estate having had similar issues) we then agreed a compromise settlement figure (I think maybe in a phone call) which we paid.

But every time we have had any communication with Urbanpoint since we are back to Square 1 - usually dealing with a different person and so the demand letters still keep coming despite our having paid that agreed settlement amount and then (as they are at least now addressing maintenance issues on the estate) paying the annual amount moving forward since then.

So to summarise and to answer your question: no we were not aware when we purchased the house that there was a debt - but we have now paid off an agreed portion of it (which Urbanpoint are choosing to forget) and we do have copies of all of our written communications with Urbanpoint

Adrian Jones

11:04 AM, 1st September 2016, About 8 years ago

I'm guessing it's too late now but given all the grief you've been through you might as well contact the solicitor and see what they say. What can you lose?

11:05 AM, 1st September 2016, About 8 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Adrian Jones" at "01/09/2016 - 10:56":

No
I guess we just thought it would easily go away as it was (to us) patently so obvious that we couldn't owe money from before we even owned the property - naïve huh?

Wish we'd known of Property118 back then as no doubt I would have raised a topic then

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