Maintence Charges on flat

[ROBOKOP]

Hi All,

 

I wonder whether anyone can tell me if I'm getting angry unnessacerily. The maintence charges for my flat come up in July and I recieved a letter telling me they were going to be £1045.82 this year. I sent a cheque off to them and never heard anything. I noticed after about a month that it had still not been cashed and on the 18th August I got a "first and final reminder" saying if it wasn't paid by 15th August I would incuur debt fees. I sent another cheque off as I presumed the first had not reached its destination but this time requested a reciept. This time it was cashed and a reciept was sent back with a debt collection charge of £212.25 added. (meaning that in effect I was £212.25 in debt). I contacted them explained that I hadn't recieved their reminder and asked them to delete this and issue a new reciept showing zero but they have refused! I originally spoke to them two weeks ago and she said she would get back to me. I am assuming because the news was bad they decided to write me a letter and let me know instead of calling me back. As I haven't recieved this either I called yesterday and they said they are still going to charge me £212.25 for a payment being 3 days late even though I didn't know about it! They said that because they have followed procedure they will not drop it. They say their not going to back down as I've only contacted them because I recieved the letter from the debt company. This is not even true! I have had no letter fro ma debt company either!! I just contacted them to get them to correct me account.

 

I am getting more annoyed with this by the second!! Surely they must be regluated by someone?!

[legalpickle]

Bump

[slick132]

Moving this to Residential and Commercial Lettings forum.

 

I know it's not quite the perfect forum but bods here may well have some answers.

 

The £212 sounds disproportionate to me, but that doesn't count for much.

[Aequitas]

You can only be charged "debt fees" if the lease allows it. You'll have to look at the lease.

[TheChancellor]

MrShed is the man to speak to next time he is on!

 

What was the date on the letter you received on the 18th Aug?

 

(Not sure how they can ask for payment by the 15th if they hadn't posted till 16/17th?)

 

 

ps. No you have every reason to be angry they are trying to rip you off.

[MrShed]

I agree with chancellor - totally unreasonable.

 

There are several defences to this IMO.

 

First of all, they would only be entitled to charge their ACTUAL loss due to late payment. This is likely to be nominal, and certainly single figures!!

 

Secondly, do you have any proof of postage of the first cheque?

 

Finally, I agree with Aequitas that if it isnt in the lease, they cant charge in any event.

[ROBOKOP]

Still no joy with this. Thought I could go to the Ombudsman in regards to this as regulated by the FSA but apparently the fee's area is not covered. This is getting me down now as I dont know which way to turn. I asked them for a full breakdown of charges and this is what they wrote back...

 

 

Property Debt Collection have copied me across their fees, please find the breakdown below:

 

 

 

To check a Land registry office copy takes 10 minutes

 

To input account details to our database takes 40 minutes

 

To generate and issue the actual letter takes 10 minutes

 

To process payment and clear the file takes 30 minutes

 

 

 

Therefore the total time it takes to work on any file sent through to us is 1.5 hours. At an hourly rate of £113.33 this brings our fee to £170.00 plus VAT of £29.75 = 199.75.

 

 

 

This is what has been charged to your account as the property was sent to PDC and actioned before payment was received.

 

They took the phone call for the individual stating that a Mr Callum did not reside at the address. I suggest you discuss this with them for further information 01992 449403.

 

 

 

 

 

Because the hourly rate breaks down to £133.33 it appears that all they have done to justify the charges is break down the hourly rate to the time it took them to do some work. No-one gets paid £133.33 an hour for data imputting! Also as you will see from the above response they are saying that the debt company sent a letter to my address and that someone from that address called them to say i didn't live there. I have never recieved their letter or ever spoken to this debt company to confirm I didn't live there. Can I just pay it and claim through Moneyclaim online? If so who do I put down as the person I have the dispute with? Is it the management company or the debt company that they have settled the charges with?

 

 

Help appreciated.

 

 

Cheers

[sillygirl1]

I'd work for them for £133.33 per hour.

 

You now need to send them a Subject Access Rights request asking for all copies of anything they have on you - and include a reference to their job application for the database job.

 

Seriously this smacks of fraud and they would have a job justifying themselves in court over this.