Hello all, any help with this much appreciated. I have a dispute with a company claiming service charges and interest over a period of six years on behalf of the developer on a property I owned. The matter only came to light after the sale of the property. It is complicated by the fact that the property is in a marina and their are two companies collecting service charges. One for the marina generally and it now transpires one for the developer. At the time of purchase the company collecting for the developer was not in place and the first six months charges were paid direct to the developers lawyer. I have pasted the letter I sent them below as it is easier than trying to describe the situation. Their response today has been to cash my cheque but to insist on all penalty charges and interest to still be paid. The property is freehold and I have no copies of the "lease" or any demands. Do I have any rights? Many thanks. (The total bill was just over £1000 with £300 made up of admin, interest, debt collection agency fees and a court fee of £80. It was never in my interest not to pay as the charge was tax deductable. I just never had any bills sent to me to pay!)
17th July 2007
Dear Sirs
Due to the sale of my property at xxxxxxxx in April this year it has been brought to my solicitors’ attention that outstanding service charges dating from 2001 have not been paid. This is much to my surprise and extreme annoyance.
I purchased the property in October 2001 and lived there until May 2002. I moved out in May and the property was let through xxxx Lettings Ltd under their full management service.
I left three forwarding addresses with the letting agent, one of which was to my accountant and another was to my mother, the legal secretary at my solicitor’s office, who also had full power of attorney to settle all bills, as I would often be overseas. In addition, from April 2002 I put in place a Royal Mail three month postal re-direction. I also changed my details on the electoral role.
I consider these actions more than adequate and reasonable. No correspondence from you has ever been forwarded to me.
On checking with my accountant at the end of the tax year in 2003 that service charges were being included in the accounts for the property he confirmed that payments, made up of various bills and service charges, were being made to a company called xxxxxxx Trust. In the absence of any invoices or payment demands from you and as The bills from xxxx Trust contain the words "Service Charge" I and he naturally assumed these were the service charges for the property.
Since this matter has come to light I have carefully checked my files and have one generic non-personalised letter from you. This letter dated March 18 2002 Introduces you as being the company that is responsible " for ensuring that your management company carries out it’s day to day obligations including the garden maintenance……".
The letter at no point offers any reference to yourselves as the company that would issue invoices and collect the service charges. A copy of the letter is enclosed.
On making further enquiries I have discovered that by November of 2002, some eight months after I left the property, you had still not issued any invoices or payment demands for the year end 2003. Again this naturally led to the assumption that the bills from xxxxxTrust were the service charges.
On notification from my solicitor and on my return to the UK for a brief period in July 2007, I have immediately sought to discover the reasons for the situation. Further to my telephone conversation with your office on the 9th of July, I regret that despite giving you a UK telephone number and expressing my desire to urgently conclude the matter during the three days I was to be in the UK, no contact was made by you.
I also note copies of the letters and invoices requested by both myself and my solicitor’s office have not been forwarded by you.
Therefore I enclose a cheque to you via my solicitor to cover the amount of service charge outstanding (less the new owners proportion) plus the statutory amount of £40 towards your administration fees in full and final settlement.
I consider the remainder of your interest and admin charges unfair as you allowed them to accrue over the totally unacceptable period of six years. During this six year period, despite receiving no acknowledgement whatsoever to your claimed correspondence, no reasonable effort was made by you or your agents to ascertain why you were receiving no reply (because I did not live at the address) or to make contact with my solicitor or agents to obtain a forwarding address and or payment.
unfair interest and admin from service charge company 
