Thankyou for the replies. I have founds my Barclaycard folder and I did do a SAR from them a couple of years back when I was sorting out my credit files. They took £850 out of my current account. I have also gone through the statements they sent me through the SAR and I have totalled £460 in late payment charges excluding any interest that would be added on due to the late payment charges. Im going to read up on how to take it forwards now, im not sure whether I should send them a letter or call them as per there £75 compensation letter.

Hello all, A good number of years back when I was a student I had a Barclaycard which I managed very poorly and managed to get into a big mess and stop paying. Barclaycard were sending letters to a number of my student addresses and I didn’t keep track or open them apart from knowing I needed to get a grip of the situation. I had a Barclays current account at the same time, and while the Barclaycard debt was ongoing my father sent me a sum of money to pay for my tuition fees and accommodation. One day I noticed Barclays had taken the outstanding amount owed to Barclaycard from my account without consulting me… this left me in all sorts of trouble at the time but the Barclaycard debt was paid as they took it themselves! I still hate them to this day. Fast forwards to today, I no longer have a Barclaycard but still have a Barclays current account. I received a letter saying: ‘Following a recent review of our operating procedures we have identified that for some customers who had fallen behind on their payments, we transferred funds from an alternative account which was in credit. Our review revealed that we may not have contacted you before completing the transfer, or taken into account your personal circumstances when determining the amount to transfer. Please accept our apologies for this. In recognition of the potential distress and inconvenience you may have suffered, as a result of the transfer, we are making a payment to you of £75.00 (the inconvenience payment). It then goes on to say call them to get the £75.00. Now, knowing what Barclaycard are like, I highly doubt they are just handing me £75.00 because they actually feel sorry, rather I am guessing they may have done something incorrect…. Is there any legal basis that has come to light on taking money from my current account without my permission, I would love to be able to claim back a much higher amount than the £75.00 they are offering but don’t know what steps I should be taking. Im really grateful for any advice or help. Many Thanks

Thanks for all the advice. I have written a letter that I am going to email them if it all looks ok? Dear xxx, Thank you for clarifying the amounts, please find my position in relation to the 2 alleged outstanding amounts below. 28 May 2012, Late Payment Fee I do not admit liability for this debt, and I do not intend to make any further payments to it for the following reasons: - The earliest point at which you could have sued for the full balance owing to this debt was more than six years ago - No payment has been made to this debt by me, any joint account-holder, or any third party acting as my agent for a period of more than six years - No written admission of liability for this debt has been made by me, or any third party acting as my agent for a period of more than six years This debt is therefore statute barred and any court claim to recover it will be defended on this basis. If you have evidence that this debt isn’t statute barred, please send it to me within 21 days. Otherwise, please confirm in writing that you won’t pursue me further for this debt. 18 Feb 2016, Legal Fees Re Section 146 Procedure The S146 costs are not not valid as at the time the management company couldn’t start breach/forfeit proceedings due to the alleged outstanding amount being under £350, in any event the actual service charges were up to date. The managing agents cannot add on admin fees to try to bring the amount to over £350, please see: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/section/167 The £350 must consist of pure service charges. Importantly, I did not receive a summary of rights for service charges and/or summary of rights for admin charges due to not receiving the letters demanding the original amounts as was explained to the previous managing agents, hence the amount wasn’t payable in first place. I would request you to remove this charge for the reasons explained above would appreciate acknowledgement that you have done so. Regards

Thankyou for the reply Andydd. Firstly, would the new managing agents even be legally allowed to continue to collect admin charges/legal fees from matters arising from the previous managing agent? Late payment fee - I have not received any of the documents you referenced, as the managing agents only collect the service charges I guess I should have received a summary of rights. From your earlier reply on you stated 'For any pure service charge cost..the stat barred limit is 12 years but for any resulting admin cost its 6 years as is ground rent.' We are over the 6 years now, so should I tell them this now? Legal Fees Would I be correct in sending them something such as the following in regards to the 'legal fee': Legal fees in respect of S146 require the freeholder to show that I, the lessee, have been in breach of the lease, owe over £350 and that you have been pursuing me for breach/forfeiture. Thanks

Thankyou for all the replies. It all went quiet whilst the new management company were taking over. The new management company are still chasing it, they have clarified that the 'outstanding balance' relates to the following 2 items: 28 May 2012 - £114 late payment fee (could this be statute barred as over 6 years?!) 18 Feb 2016 - £450 legal fees re section 146 procedure I have never been taken to court by Regalty or anyone else, hence the £450 legal fees being a strange one, and could the £114 fee from 2012 be statue barred? What would be a suitable response, would something along the lines of the following suffice: 'Thank you for confirming what the alleged outstanding amounts relate to. As I have previously explained and which is now clear, no management fees are outstanding and supposed balance is made up of 'fees'. I do not recognise the legal standing of these fees and how I have incurred them. I kindly request an explanation of how each of the amounts has been charged to my account. Regards'. Thanks for any advice.

Thanks, will post again hopefully a bit clearer: Thankyou for that, so if I am right which I am certain I am in that all of the costs they have added together are 'charges', with one being from 2012 for £114, then that would be statue barred now. They have responded to my email: On 16/06/2018 21:00, Legal Department wrote: Dear xxx You are quite incorrect insofar as the law is concerned. Your request pursuant to Section 21 cannot be complied with by ourselves as we are in the process of handing over to Realty Property Management and therefore would require the full 30 days under the act to give you an appropriate breakdown. Furthermore, this request would be a summary of the previous accounts. Your account will be charged with the overdue fee (you having now taken nearly a month to communicate to us following our letter) and the matter passed to the new managing agent to pursue. Kind Regards on behalf of Regalty Law Legal Department of Regalty Estates On 15 June 2018 at 22:46, xxx wrote: Dear Regalty Estates, In regards to your correspondence dated 16/05/2018 the contents of which are duly noted. I require a full and comprehensive breakdown of costs as per S21 of The Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 of the amounts you allege are owed to you along with how the amounts are related to each point. As you are threatening legal action I request a breakdown as the CPR disclosure/pre-litigation rules. The service charge statement you have sent does not breakdown or help in identifying how the alleged £1024.41 owed to you has been accrued, with the earliest document attached to the statement you sent showing the balance brought forward of £564.00 on 01/01/2017 but no indication of how this balance has arisen. There have also been further, regular payments recently keeping the account up to date which are not reflected. Failure to provide me with this information will mean no further communication will be entered into and any legal action on your behalf will be fully defended with your non compliance forming part of the defence. Sincerely

Thanks Andy. No, im not behind on service charge payments. From my own guessing I can work out they are chasing me for these 2 charges: 28 May 12 – late payment fee £114 18 Feb 16 – legal fees re section 146 procedure £450 What annoys me the most is that these 'charges' were put onto my account as they reckonded they had written to me in regards to emergency payments, I never received the letters and they put the charges on. As soon as I was aware of the emergency payments they wanted I paid them. Would the 28 May 2012 late payment fee be statute barred now as its over 6 years? The £450 legal fees charge, they have never actually taken me to court so cant see how they are making out this is due. So first step would be getting them to actually confirm what I owe them. Will send them this: Dear Regalty Estates, In regards to your correspondence dated 16/05/2018 the contents of which are duly noted. I require a full and comprehensive breakdown of costs as per S21 of The Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 of the amounts you allege are owed to you along with how the amounts are related to each point. As you are threatening legal action you I request a breakdown as the CPR disclosure/pre-litigation rules. The service charge statement you have sent does not breakdown or help in identifying how the alleged £1024.41 owed to you has been accrued, with the earliest document attached to the statement you sent showing the balance brought forward of £564.00 on 01/01/2017 but no indication of how this balance has arisen. There have also been further, regular payments recently keeping the account up to date which are not reflected. Failure to provide me with this information will mean no further communication will be entered into and any legal action on your behalf will be fully defended with your non compliance forming part of the defence. Sincerely

When I questioned them on the lease a long time ago they said this: > Paragraph 1.2 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Lease says as follows: > > "To pay to the Lessor or the Management Company as the case may be on a full indemnity basis all costs and expenses incurred by the Lessor or the Management Company or their respective solicitors in enforcing the payment of any Rent or Service Charge or Service Charge Adjustment or Additional contributionicon or other monies payable by the Lessee under the terms of the Lease" > Going back to how these charges arose, I received a letter demanding payment of 'general maintenance reserve’ and ‘insurance excess reserve' along with various charges as they stated they had been sending me letters and I had not paid up in time. I did tell them that I had not received any of the letters hence they charges were unreasonable. They stuck to their guns and wouldnt back down, saying they had sent letters. Hence the long thread, with the alleged debt now being a figure I don't have a clue how they have arrived at. From a logical perspective, I would think that they need to actually send me a clear breakdown of what they say I owe them, which they still have not done to this day, just sending me a statement of account instead which doesnt even go far back enough to show the charges being applied. So would it be a good move to send them the following: Dear Regalty Estates, In regards to your correspondence dated 16/05/2018 the contents of which are duly noted. I require a full and comprehensive breakdown of the amounts you allege are owed to you along with how the amounts are related to each point. The service charge statement does not breakdown or help in identifying how the alleged £1024.41 owed to you has been accrued, with the earliest statement showing the balance brought forward of £564.00 on 01/01/2017 but no indication of how this balance has arisen. There have also been further, regular payments recently keeping the account up to date which are not reflected. Failure to provide me with this information will mean no further communication will be entered into and any legal action on your behalf will be fully defended with your non compliance forming part of the defence. Sincerely

Thankyou andydd, our replies both came in at the same time so I will read through your post and update

Thankyou. The last I heard from them was this when they threatened to start legal action within 7 days which didn't materialize, that was in Feb 2017: On 04/07/2017 17:35, xxx xxx wrote: > Dear Sir > Kindly confirm if the outstanding balance will be paid? Failing which we will issue proceedings against you. > > Kind Regards > > xxx xxx LLM (Hons) > Solicitor On 1 February 2017 at 12:53, xxx xxx wrote: > Dear Sir > Further to the below, we note that a large balance remains outstanding. If payment is not made within 7 days then we will issue proceedings against you in the County Court to recover this. > Kind Regards > xxx xxx LLM (Hons) > Solicitor On 18 October 2016 at 11:49, xxx xxx wrote: > > Dear Sir > > Paragraph 1.2 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Lease says as follows: > > "To pay to the Lessor or the Management Company as the case may be on a full indemnity basis all costs and expenses incurred by the Lessor or the Management Company or their respective solicitors in enforcing the payment of any Rent or Service Charge or Service Charge Adjustment or Additional Contribution or other monies payable by the Lessee under the terms of the Lease" > > Kind Regards > > xxx xxx LLM (Hons) > Solicitor On 18 October 2016 at 11:43, xxx xxx wrote: > > Thankyou for your reply. Can you please provide me with an extract of the lease showing where 'admin fees' and 'charges' apply. > > Many Thanks > > xxx xxx On 13/10/2016 15:39, xxx xxx wrote: >> Dear Sir >> >> You have been provided with a statement on 7 October detailing the amounts outstanding. If you are unsure about this then please let me know which items you are unsure about and I shall clarify these. >> >> Kind Regards >> >> xxx xxx LLM (Hons) >> Solicitor On 11 October 2016 at 15:40, xxx xxx wrote: >> >> Dear Regalty Estates , >> >> In regards to your correspondence dated 27/09/2016, the contents of which are duly noted. I require a full and comprehensive breakdown of the amounts you allege are owed to you along with how the amounts are related to each point. Failure to provide me with this information will mean no further communication will be entered into and any legal action on your behalf will be fully defended with your non compliance forming part of the defence. >> >> Sincerely >> >> xxx xxx They are claiming in their current letter that as I am behind on service charge payment that I owe the full amount for the year to 31 dec 2018... even though they are being replaced as managing agents at the end of this month. The service charge statement they have sent doesn't actually break down how the alleged debt is owed, and is simply a ledger showing opening balance/closing balances, invoices and payments. They have still not sent me a clear breakdown of the alleged amount owed. Going to send them the following: Dear Regalty Estates, In regards to your correspondence dated 16/05/2018 the contents of which are duly noted. I require a full and comprehensive breakdown of the amounts you allege are owed to you along with how the amounts are related to each point. The service charge statement does not breakdown or help in identifying how the alleged £1024.41 owed to you has been accrued, with the statement showing the balance brought forward of £564.00 on 01/01/2017 but no indication of how this balance has arisen. There have also been further, regular payments recently keeping the account up to date. Failure to provide me with this information will mean no further communication will be entered into and any legal action on your behalf will be fully defended with your non compliance forming part of the defence. Sincerely Any amendments to it are welcomed.

Update after a lengthy period! So, I ignored all the demands for payment of these 'charges' and just continued paying the managing agent charge, they did send a few emails threatening court action but nothing happened. Recently found out that Regalty being replaced as managing agents and another firm is taking over. I received a letter from Regalty where they are once again chasing the 'debt' as no doubt they want to cash in as much as they can before they are replaced as managing agents on 28 June 2018. The letter is titled 'pre action protocol in relation to service charge debt' I can guess what they are doing is trying to state any payments I have made were applied to the 'admin charges' first, hence I am behind on my service charge. I have never had any intention of paying off their 'charges' and any payments I have made have been towards the actual managing agents fee, not to the 'charges'. They have asked me to reply to this pre action protocol within 30 days, im on about day 27 now. The letter has various forms attached asking if I agree/dont agree with the debt etc. They have written if I do nothing then £125+vat legal and admin costs will be added to my account and a court summons with further costs. Should I just ignore it again?

'Paragraph 1.2 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Lease says as follows: "To pay to the Lessor or the Management Company as the case may be on a full indemnity basis all costs and expenses incurred by the Lessor or the Management Company or their respective solicitors in enforcing the payment of any Rent or Service Charge or Service Charge Adjustment or Additional contributionicon or other monies payable by the Lessee under the terms of the Lease" Reading the above carefully, it says 'all costs and expenses incurred'. And looking at what they are actually trying to charge me for: 28 May 12 – late payment fee £114 18 Feb 16 – legal fees re section 146 procedure £450 27 Sep 16 – administration fee £138 I don't know how they have 'incurred' £114 and £138 for late payment/administration fees. And legal fees cost of £450 cannot have been incurred by them as I have not been taken to court. Can anyone help with the best way to respond to them? Really appreciated.

I emailed them asking for an extract from the lease which shows these 'admin' charges are valid, they have responded with: 'Paragraph 1.2 of Part I of the Third Schedule of the Lease says as follows: "To pay to the Lessor or the Management Company as the case may be on a full indemnity basis all costs and expenses incurred by the Lessor or the Management Company or their respective solicitors in enforcing the payment of any Rent or Service Charge or Service Charge Adjustment or Additional Contribution or other monies payable by the Lessee under the terms of the Lease" Another point to note - I received a letter from them a few days ago in regards to an unrelated matter about maintenance in the building. They have addressed my name incorrectly, my first name is Usman but they have spelt it 'Hussman', with the surname and address being correct. Could I use this as an argument as to why I have not been receiving their demands for payment, the original matter stems from them me not receiving their demands for payment.'

Thanks, ill try and dig my lease out and read through it

No they have not taken me to court as of yet but put the charge on my account already. I will try and find a copy of my lease to see if they can do this. If I ask them for a copy of the lease do they have to supply it ? I am totally up to date with all the service charges/management fees.