Hello All,

Today i received a letter from my local council leasehold team asking me to pay an outstanding amount within 2wks or face court action.

i received what seem like a bill for 2 years in March 2017

i started to query this and they told me it was what was outstanding from a previous year

- what year is this? 2015.

Before i got to this point it took 2 months and it felt almost like a cover up, eventually someone explained what had happened.

In 2015 i was sent a bill £ X, paid by 10 monthly instalments, but instead of applying my payments against the £X they applied it against £0 which meant at the end of the financial year i was in credit of £X

2016 next bill came - bill was less than previous years, i called the council and they told me i have been overpaying and this is why and i should reduce my future payments.

2017 they now want me to cough up for 2015/16 as well as 2017/18

My question is

they made a mistake on my account in March 2015 by not applying a debit to my account leaving it at £0, and September 2016 was the first time they wrote about outstanding charges be it they didn't admit any mistake.

Can they ask me to pay for something that was meant for 2015 in 2017 and also it has been 19 months after the mistake before they are ask for the payment.

Does this section 20B give me a leg to stand on? http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70/section/20B

I actually don't mind paying just don't want to be harassed about it.

Please if any bit is unclear let me know and i will try and be clearer

Regards

fro

A debt can be re-claimed for 6 years.

Wrong - you are referring to financial contracts this is not one of such this is a leasehold contract, and does not apply here, read link i put in the original post.

Are there any experts here that could shed more light on this?

Regards

Looking at your link and based on your opening post, they informed you in writing within 18 months (March 2015 to September 2016) that these charges were owed. As per subsection 2 from your link, it appears that the legislation in the link does not apply in this case.

Whilst they may not have been overly clever or helpful by waiting several months before raising it as an official bill, by the same token, you could have questioned their letter back in September 2016 informing you of the extra charge. Apologises if you did contact them at the time, not clear from your opening post whether you did or not.

I am not an expert by the way, just my interpretation.

Thanks Good Sister - my calculation between March 2015 to Sept 2016 gives me 18 months, i didn't question the notice until they gave me a breakdown in March 2017 to say i paid £0 in 2015.

A debt can be re-claimed for 6 years.

With leasehold it may be 12 years BUT S20B can have effect effectively making it 18 months but it depends on various other factors.

Wrong - you are referring to financial contracts this is not one of such this is a leasehold contract, and does not apply here, read link i put in the original post.

 

Are there any experts here that could shed more light on this?

 

Regards

The point of S20B is so that large bills are not sprung upon a LH.

So If I as a FH run up 2 years worth of debts and then send you a bill 2 years later, you would only be liable for anything incured in the last 6 months...if the whole of the debt is older than 18 months then nothing is payable.

BUT IF you were informed of the cost within the 18 month period than the debt would ultimately be payable upon demand (at this point the standard 6 years or more likely 12 years for leasehold) statutory limits would apply.

NOTE that the 'informed of costs' part has no specific format (unlike actual demands), back of fag packet would comply, also note that if your lease allows advance payments or advance partial installments S20B has no relevance.

So the question is, were you informed of any costs incurred during the 18 month period (but not necessarily demanded) or were any payments advance payments under the lease ?

Thanks Andy,

The bill they failed to apply on their system was issued in March 2015 for £600 say finished paying this off in January 2016 in March 2016 i received a new bill say £300 which i finished paying off January 2017. In Sept 2016 i got a revised bill (this is common) saying the real cost is £800 so i was expecting that they would take out the £600 i had already paid and leave me with £200 in addition to new bill in March 2017(£900).

Instead my bill stay £800 + £900 = £1700 effectively

so to answer the question the revised bill or notification cam e in September 2016 to revise the bill for March 2015.

To be honest I cant really follow this....and would need to see some sort of breakdown to see whats owned and when.

We need to know what your lease says about payments, does it give specific dates, etc, does it require advance payments.

What demands have you received ? (did they come with Service Charges - Summary of Rights attached ?)

Why do you call it a revised bill ?, it sounds to me that the first March was an interim or estimated advance and September was the balancing charge, unfortunately this may mean S20B has no effect.

In any event I suspect all the service charges may well be payable (assuming S20B doesnt apply), the only thing to worry about is if youve been hit with extra/late/admin costs ?

To be honest I cant really follow this....and would need to see some sort of breakdown to see whats owned and when.

 

 

Why do you call it a revised bill ?, it sounds to me that the first March was an interim or estimated advance and September was the balancing charge, unfortunately this may mean S20B has no effect.

Yes it was an estimate advance

Aha..then Im afraid S20B has no effect except I think for the balance amount, so if you pay £100 in advance, and final balance is £110 you would need to be informed of the extra £10 spent, if a demand is sent 18 months later then the £10 wouldnt be payable.

It looks as if you dont have any grounds to not pay unless you want to query the service charge for reasonableness, i,.e did it really cost £1000 to paint the outside, etc