SLC Solicitors in Shrewsbury - unpaid ground rent issues

[Gabriel100]

Has anyone on this forum received letters from SLC Solicitors based in Shrewsbury threating that they will commence legal proceeding for non payment of ground rent charges?

 

 

 

I have had a property for about 10 years, In the past the ground rent company sent me letters which I responded to and paid, but I just realised that I had not received any demand for ground rent for the last 2 years;

I recently got a letter from SLC solicitors stating that I owed some ground rent + admin charges; they sent my mortgage company a demand letter asking for additional £300.00 more money than was written in the letter sent to me. I promptly responded asking them not to pay any money on my behalf as I intend to challenge the extra charges attached to the demand.

I recently wrote to the builders that sold me the property requesting they send me the name of the company that was authorised to collect the ground rent on their behalf, they replied Indicating the company the freehold interest was sold to.

When I wrote to this company, I got a response from them that my details were not among those passed to them as they had no record of my property.

Looking through the pages on the Internet, and I see a lot of awards given to SLC Solicitors for recovering debt, but when a £100.00 ground rent becomes £500.00, it doesn’t add up.

If a person is financially stressed and cannot pay £100.00, where are they going to find £500.00?

 

I will like to hear from past & present Individuals about their experiences

Edited May 2, 2014 by Gabriel100

[mariner51]

And you are ?

 

 

Some background would help.

[stu007]

Hi Gabriel100

 

As stated could you give us some more background for your reason for such a request?

[Gabriel100]

And you are ?

 

 

Some background would help.

 

I have had a property for about 10 years, In the past the ground rent company sent me letters which I responded to and paid, but I just realised that I had not received any demand for ground rent for the last 2 years;

I recently got a letter from SLC solicitors stating that I owed some ground rent + admin charges; they sent my mortgage company a demand letter asking for additional £300.00 more money than was written in the letter sent to me. I promptly responded asking them not to pay any money on my behalf as I intend to challenge the extra charges attached to the demand.

I recently wrote to the builders that sold me the property requesting they send me the name of the company that was authorised to collect the ground rent on their behalf, they replied Indicating the company the freehold interest was sold to.

 

When I wrote to this company, I got a response from them that my details were not among those passed to them as they had no record of my property.

Looking through the pages on the Internet, and I see a lot of awards given to SLC Solicitors for recovering debt, but when a £100.00 ground rent becomes £500.00, it doesn’t add up.

If a person is financially stressed and cannot pay £100.00, where are they going to find £500.00?

 

I think there is something not right about this, hence my request for people who might have had past dealing with these people;

[Gabriel100]

Post updated with my story

[BankFodder]

Have you paid the arrears in ground rent? You should do this immediately and deal with the rest afterwards. Do not hold out on the lot as a matter of principle.

[ericsbrother]

The admin charges are unenforceable if not in the lease. They are added on by the agent of the freeholder because they normally get away with it. You should pay the landlord directly and if they say you have to say the agent then pay the ground rent only.

If the freeholder hasnt contacted you then it is hardly your fault. You can do a land registry search for £3 and send them the cq for £100 if you want to avoid the solicitors altogether. the LL isnt allowed to refuse your money.

[andydd]

Hiya.

 

Lots of hoops for the freeholder to jump through and its quite likely he will fail on one

 

1. If you havnt received any demands for Ground Rent it simply is not payable (as per S166 of CommonHold & Leasehold reform act 2002 > http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/15/section/166, and neither are any associated extra charges..BUT this is sometimes difficult to prove in court, he may say he sent demands you may say you didnt recieve them, maybe ask other flat owners, did they receive them ?, etc. S166 overules any provisions of the lease that may say GR is payable without demand.

 

2. Extra admin charges are only payable if the lease says so, many older leases have no such provision..mine doesn't, so have a good read through.

 

3. Extra admin charges are only payable if accomapanied by The Summary Of Rights - Administration Charges as per here > http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=89, many freeholders simply forget this.

 

4. Lastly, even if all 3 are passed you can ask the FTT (previously LVT) to judicate whether the amounts are reasonable, I';d think they'd say No, they often conclude that reasonable admin costs for sending a letter are about £25, IF they are trying to pass on the solicitors costs then the lease will also need to allow legal costs to be recovered, again, many do not.

 

I have taken on my Freeholder/Landlord many times in Court/LVT and with geat success, they lost on the issue of ground rent as the judge believed me when I said I hadnt received them and they even were overcharging me and I received £1000 back, Ive also sued them for other damages, etc and got back well over £2500 now

[andydd]

The admin charges are unenforceable if not in the lease. They are added on by the agent of the freeholder because they normally get away with it. You should pay the landlord directly and if they say you have to say the agent then pay the ground rent only.

If the freeholder hasnt contacted you then it is hardly your fault. You can do a land registry search for £3 and send them the cq for £100 if you want to avoid the solicitors altogether. the LL isnt allowed to refuse your money.

 

Not quite accurate, it is acceptable for freeholders to emply an agent to collect rent and charges and money should be sent to the agent, this is assuming that the lease allows a management agent but 99% do and it may even be a tripartie lease meaning that the agent is party to the contract (the lease).

 

But clearly if not a tripartie lease than any legal action would have to be taken by the landlord/freeholder.

[andydd]

It is important to pay any GR arrears as mentioned by Bankfodder, the agent/freeholder may try and be clever and return it but you could show a court you tried. Some would even suggest paying the extra amounts under protest and then start a court/ftt claim to get the money back.

[mrperoni]

It is important to pay any GR arrears as mentioned by Bankfodder, the agent/freeholder may try and be clever and return it but you could show a court you tried. Some would even suggest paying the extra amounts under protest and then start a court/ftt claim to get the money back.

 

In a similar situation. SLC are playing hardball. I think they are the 'no win no fee' type. Threatening court actions etc over late payment of £100. It's a disgrace. Ensure that you have paid your ground rent first and foremost.

 

The expenses they are clamining are extraordinary and I refuse to pay them because demands have not been received... If it needs to go to court so be it.

 

Pity the landlord uses such people when there were other channels to contact me directly, it will probably end up costing them money...which in turn might be a lesson...you never know! Any top tips appreciated before they force 'court proceedings'. Cheers.

Edited October 1, 2014 by honeybee13
Removing pejorative term.

[andydd]

This is a very common scenario. Mrperoni is right in that it is imporatnt to pay Ground Rent on time, unlike service charges there are no arguments about the resaonable of the amounts or the quality of the work done, its simply payable (but see below).

 

Its also worth noting that the payment of and the acceptance of (by the Landlord/Freeholder) of ground rent means that the S146/Forfeiture route of the property under extreme circumstances CANT be used (by accepting GR, the FH has agreed that the lease is continuing and cant forfeit, this sometimes leads to stange cases where the Leaseholder is trying to pay but get cheques returned !).

 

Points to note.

 

1. Ground Rent is only payable if you have received valid S166 demand (see http://www.lease-advice.org/documents/Form_of_Rent_Demand_Notice_England.pdf)

 

2. Even if you dont pay on time extra 'Admin/late' charges are only payable if:-

 

a) The lease allows these extra charges, many older leases do not, if not many sneaky FH/MA's try and point to the S146 clause but this doesnt really apply to late payment of grount rent.

 

and

 

b) The FH/MA has sent the Summary of Rigjhts - Admin Charges IN THE EXACT CORRECT FORMAT, may forget this or muck up the format, wrong font size, etc plus it has had multiple chnages over the years. See here > http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/documents/document.asp?item=89

 

Even if all the above is complied with, a LH has the right to apply to the FTT (previously LVT) to determine if fees are reasonable, many for example would conclude that sending a simple letter would be £25 max.

 

Many FH/MA's use the late payment of GR as a good money making scheme that is very dubious.

[mrperoni]

Many thanks Andy. I have in fact paid the additional fees pertaining to the landlord, totalling 150% of the ground rent despite my ground rent being up to date as I write. In my case I did not receive demands and so did not pay ground rent on time (the landlord had not updated his records, but how can I prove this?). I won't make that mistake again!

 

 

 

 

 

My problem is with the 'no win no fee' solicitors, they are brutal and will probably still be persuing me. The landlord also went very quickly down the legal route and, in a very immature turn of events, is also not talking to me. After this experience I'm thinking of selling up to be honest, leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

[andydd]

Selling up isnt a great answer as there are many unscrupulous freeholder/landslords and unless you are buying a house, then most flats will come with some sort of leasehold arrangement and you never really know what they will be like.

 

There are various options such as RTM/RTE where you and the other leaseholders can take controld of the management.

 

Its worth remembering that even if you have paid extra admin fees you can still try and claim them back for upto 6 or possibly 12 years, I had success in this where an LVT concluded fees I paid were either not payable or huge fees such as £150 for basically sending a letter should be reduced to £25.

 

I dont believe no win no fee solicitoirs are any more brutal than others, its who is correct in law that counts, I have taken on my freeholder represented by a solicitor charging £217 an hour many times now and have been refunded approx £2000 and have saved nearlt £6000 in service charges due to the freeholder making small errors and him being unable to recover the amounts from me.

[mrperoni]

Selling up isnt a great answer as there are many unscrupulous freeholder/landslords and unless you are buying a house, then most flats will come with some sort of leasehold arrangement and you never really know what they will be like.

 

 

 

 

 

There are various options such as RTM/RTE where you and the other leaseholders can take controld of the management.

 

 

 

 

 

Its worth remembering that even if you have paid extra admin fees you can still try and claim them back for upto 6 or possibly 12 years, I had success in this where an LVT concluded fees I paid were either not payable or huge fees such as £150 for basically sending a letter should be reduced to £25.

 

 

 

 

 

I dont believe no win no fee solicitoirs are any more brutal than others, its who is correct in law that counts, I have taken on my freeholder represented by a solicitor charging £217 an hour many times now and have been refunded approx £2000 and have saved nearlt £6000 in service charges due to the freeholder making small errors and him being unable to recover the amounts from me.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you ever so much Andy. It's a matter of principle for me and I will be taking this one step at a time as you suggest. It's frustrating that these matters are dealt with in this way, but the options you have suggested are at the forefront of my mind. I really appreciate your thoughts and won't be throwing the towel in on the property just yet!