Jump to content


Regalty/Plumlife Estates.have made up £702 in charges and demand payment


style="text-align: center;">  

Thread Locked

because no one has posted on it for the last 1962 days.

If you need to add something to this thread then

 

Please click the "Report " link

 

at the bottom of one of the posts.

 

If you want to post a new story then

Please

Start your own new thread

That way you will attract more attention to your story and get more visitors and more help 

 

Thanks

Recommended Posts

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.

Link to post
Share on other sites

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

Link to post
Share on other sites

It appears that you are also behind with service charge payments ?

 

It does also appear that the lease gives them the right to charge extra costs if you are late paying.

 

What you need to do is write and say you are asking for a breakdown of costs as per S21 of The Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 to request a breakdown of costs (also mention that as they are threatening legal action you are requesting a breakdown as the CPR disclosure/pre-litigation rules) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70/section/21

 

If you receive something back you can then use S22 to visit them and inspect invoices, etc (although may not be easy if they are not close) > https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70/section/22

 

Did the service charge & admin charges demands comply with the law..i.e did they include Summary of Rights ?

  • Confused 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

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

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi.

 

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.

 

Im not sure about the 18 Feb 16 cost..whilst nearly all leases do allow costs to be claimed even if its not gone to court, most leases have wording like.."in contemplation of s146 or forfeiture costs"..BUT for them to "contemplate" you must of genuinely owed an amount of over £350 or if less for more than 3 years........this £350 amount is normally comprised of service charge costs..IF it includes admin charges then normally they dont count..i.e a landlord cant claim you owe £250 service charges....and then bump it up to £350 by added on £100 admin charges for late payment..the amount is still £250 and therefore the forfeit/s146 doesnt apply.

 

Also even if s146 did apply..they have to show they were actually really contemplating it....and not just saying it to add on costs..there is lots of contradictory case law about this and its a right bloody mess !

Link to post
Share on other sites

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

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I know this business and it really is a bit of a mess, dont worry about the letters theyre sending.

 

They dont have a legal guy anymore, only the owner who claims to be an expert but really isnt.

 

I think he bullys people with threats and letters to try and get his own way. Wouldnt worry about him. Hes known locally and he sends everyone legal letters for silly things, not even business related.

 

Hes a joke.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Seems like they are playing silly buggers, who is your actual Freeholder ? So are they saying they are changing from one management company to another ?

 

have you got a copy of the lease you could scan ?

 

Could also do with seeing all the letters received to try and get my head around it all.

 

Am I correct in saying..you havnt told us the name of the actual Freeholder yet ?

 

The management company was Plumlife then Regalty Estates and will soon be Realty Property Management ?

 

Andy

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

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.

Link to post
Share on other sites

You need to know on what basis the above fees are being charged.

 

Do you have a copy of the demand (re-dact personal info).

 

Late payment fee.

 

You would of had to be genuinely late paying something, and that amount would have to be owing and demanded correctly (S166 for GR, Summary of rights for service charge, etc).

 

The lease would have to allow such fees, many if not most, do not.

 

The demand itself would have to be demanded as an admin charge and come with admin charge - summary of rights

 

The amount would have to be reasonable.

 

 

Legal Fees

 

Most leases allow S146/Forfeiture fees which can in some circumstances be used by the Fh to recover costs even if no legal action, the wording is normally "incidental to", BUT its a complex area of law and a FH would have to show you were in breach of the lease, owe over £350 (this cant be default admin/legal costs) and more importantly that he was genuinely pursing you for breach/forfeiture.

Link to post
Share on other sites

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

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes..in Leasehold..the lease is assigned from one party to the next..so freeholders, leaseholders and managing agents may change but the debts are assigned to the next person..its even possible to buy a flat and find that you are responsible for previous owners debts (this is normally checked my your conveyancer).

 

Yes any admin fee over 6 years old that you havnt paid towards or acknowledged you owe would now be statuted barred.

 

In letter point out that you didnt receive correct summary of rights for service charges and/or summary of rights for admin charges so amount wasnt payable in first place.

 

You paid the maintenance & insurance of £270 odd.

 

The S146 costs is not valid as at the time they couldnt start breach/forfeit proceedings coz amount was under £350, in any event you paid the actual service charge..they cant add on admin fees to try and bring amount to over £350, see https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/section/167

 

See (3) that says that admin/default charges cant be added on...so in reality the £350 must consist of pure service charges.

 

Also that was years ago...if they were genuinelly going to pursue s146 forfeiture they should of gone to court/ftt to prove breach....it looks like theyve done nothoing.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Yes..in Leasehold..the lease is assigned from one party to the next..so freeholders, leaseholders and managing agents may change but the debts are assigned to the next person..its even possible to buy a flat and find that you are responsible for previous owners debts (this is normally checked my your conveyancer).

 

Yes any admin fee over 6 years old that you havnt paid towards or acknowledged you owe would now be statuted barred.

 

In letter point out that you didnt receive correct summary of rights for service charges and/or summary of rights for admin charges so amount wasnt payable in first place.

 

You paid the maintenance & insurance of £270 odd.

 

The S146 costs is not valid as at the time they couldnt start breach/forfeit proceedings coz amount was under £350, in any event you paid the actual service charge..they cant add on admin fees to try and bring amount to over £350, see https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/section/167

 

See (3) that says that admin/default charges cant be added on...so in reality the £350 must consist of pure service charges.

 

Also that was years ago...if they were genuinelly going to pursue s146 forfeiture they should of gone to court/ftt to prove breach....it looks like theyve done nothoing.

 

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

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 Caggers

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Have we helped you ...?


×
×
  • Create New...