Unexpected bill for over £700!

[Namechange1943]

I’ve just received a bill from the managing agents for my flat saying I owe over £700 in service charges. I queried it as I always pay on time by Direct Debit but they claim it is from many years ago when they were changing companies /between systems. I can’t pay them the full amount at once so will have to pay monthly ,which I am sure they won’t be happy with, but to be honest I think they have a bit of a cheek only mentioning it now? Surely there should be some sort of time limit. I do know I will have to pay otherwise I would breach my lease agreement but it is frustrating! WWYD?

Isn't there a 6 year limitation on bill debt payments?

https://laceyssolicitors.co.uk/2022/12/07/key-time-limits-for-debt-recovery-claims/

Might it be worth a call with a solicitor?

I would ask for the dates of yhe missinh payments then check against your.bank statements

Have you been previously advised of the unbilled service charges? From memory, service charges can only be raised if you were informed of them within 18 months of the cost being incurred (even if you weren't billed at that time)

Thanks you. I’ve asked them to clarify the dates.

It’s definitely over ten years ago as a new managing agent was put in place then. I haven’t had any letters from them in that time about the £ but it’s possible that ten years plus ago a figure was included in some statement of accounts (that run to over 40 pages) that I didn’t understand. Definitely nothing explicit and nothing in the past ten years.

I’m a bit nervous about disputing it as they say it could impact upon my lease! - that said I haven’t got the £ to pay so it would have to be a tiny bit each month!

I pay my service charge by direct debit (nearly £400 a month - was £115 when I moved in, so called Affordable Housing!). I’ve never missed but know from neighbours things can get nasty very quickly! Everything is such a mess!

Any of your neighbours in the same position as you, i.e. have lived there as long as you have?

If so, and if they have received a similar demand, get together and approach the mgt company as a group, and do not pay until they itemise and prove what their demand is for. A statute of limitations may apply also as pp has said. I would not just blindly pay it without more documentary evidence from them for sure.

I had the same thing for a house I sold in 2020, settled my factor bill and got an invoice in 2022 for fees they 'missed' in 2018...lol OK.

As pp said, it's 6 years according to the Limitations Act 1980 for unpaid invoices. What an absolute cheek to ask you for it now in one go.

Your service charge is nearly 5k a year? What on earth do they do for that?

Are you in London?

And also it’s not the same rules for non payment of service charge as ground rent is it?

Had similar, turned out they’d been sending letters to the wrong address and had my name against a completely different property. I contacted the ICO (as they’d breached GDPR), got a solicitor and in the end we negotiated and paid half what was owed. Even with solicitor involvement, I paid less than I would have done otherwise. There are so many dodgy agents making money for doing nothing!

£400 pcm???? For what?

Can you get together with other residents and challenge this? They must all be getting the same letter.

How big is the block?

It's not RMG is it?
My service charge is £180pm for fuck all and they're useless. I haven't seen anyone from the management company in the past decade

They spend 4 mins in my garden hacking at the grass which doesn't need mowing and use contractors which charge £££
Why they can't use a local gardening company and window cleaner, which would be cheaper and put money back locally...
I got hit with a deficit which was for the other block of flats (damage, rubbish removal) but because it's in the lease they're classed as one block, we have to pay

Thank you. The Managing Agents have responded to my email saying that the service charges are from 2009.

They used to send a large bundle of papers (over 40 pages long) each year that set out all the service charge costs incurred for every flat (over 1000 flats in total): it was incomprehensible. Apparently in those documents there were details of an additional item that I should have paid for. No emails or letters since then.

I have a tiny one bedroom ‘affordable flat’ in central London. When I moved in the service charge was just over £100 a month now almost £400. They charge for maintenance of communal areas, lift, gardens (used by the public) and concierge. It looks really scruffy in parts.

I did consult a solicitor and leasehold charity about the rising costs but it’s so difficult to do anything I’ve given up on the wider picture. The law isn’t very strong /doesn’t seem to give much protection. In short as long as they bill you correctly and the costs are not ridiculous they can do what they like. The problem is it’s difficult to challenge - in the documents they send there are literally thousands of items listed (Maintenance of lift, gardens etc) and it’s hard to know whether they are reasonable. The overall cost and look of the building aren’t good but it’s difficult to find individual items that can be challenged?

it’s not RMG but a very similar company - rubbish reviews online.

I am a member of the residents association but they are reluctant to take action. They tried to do so a while ago - lost and we now have to pay legal costs . Anyway it’s all a bit difficult and, after banging my head on a brick wall and getting upset fora few years , I suppose I have given up on the wider picture and just pay each month.

The bill for £700 was a shock though.

Service charge £400 a month ? Jeez what do you get for that . Exactly why leasehold should be abolished or at the very least strictly regulated.

I don't think they can enforce this as it's 10yrs ago.

Can you take advice? Do you have legal cover as part of your home insurance?

Have they actually been able to provide any evidence that you owe this money?

I wouldn't be paying it just on the say-so that 'these documentns would have contained details'.

Also, over 1000 flats at £400pm = the best part of half a million quid per month!

This kind of scam definately needs better regulation.

Don't pay unless they show you paperwork that you can clearly see shows that you owe the money. Good luck.

We had a similar situation with excessive charges and poor services in a block of flats. We looked into right to manage(RTM). This was years ago but from memory of more than 50% of leaseholders vote against the current management you can then either run it yourselves or hand it over to another management company. There are no doubt many more details but that was the essence of it. Good luck!

I own a couple of 1 bed flats in Manchester where the service charges are £300 a month. All to do with cladding/fire safety issues and increased insurance charges. Bloody ridiculous. I subsidise both those flats as the rent doesn’t cover the service charges and mortgage.

don’t get me started on ground rent charges…

That sounds like a nightmare. We were very fortunate not to be directly impacted by the cladding- luck (on our side) rather than anything else : the cladding used on our blocks was fortunately safe. I feel so very very sorry for all those that have been impacted. How companies can get away with it I don’t know. Scandalous!

I have asked the managing agent for paperwork to show how the money was owed and am planning to speak to a leasehold charity for advice next week so fingers crossed.

Sometimes trying to jugggle everything gets too much and you just want to give up. All I wanted in life was to work hard , have somewhere decent to live and be able to pay my bills/ maintain an okay standard of living but it seems so hard at the moment. I’m sorry others are in a similar position.

Not sure if they will be able to enforce an invoice from so long ago. Your best bet is probably to speak to the Leasehold Advisory Service. This is a government funded body who will be able to give you the correct advice and support.

In fact just looking at the LAS website it says costs must be invoiced within 18 months of the costs being incurred.

Sounds like the managing agent is trying it on and hoping you don’t know the rules and will pay.

Thank you. I have an appointment to speak to the Leasehold Advisory Service tomorrow. I am hoping they will say that it’s too long ago to be enforced - or at the very least I should be allowed to pay in instalments.

The Managing Agent are claiming that the costs were included in the 40 plus pages of service charges they sent me in 2009. So I suppose that could be the invoice? - but I haven’t heard anything about it in the past 13 years! Fingers crossed that I don’t have to pay any more. I think what I have to pay now is extortionate , paying more from so long ago seems crazy. Am also worried they might keep doing this….

Surely they can’t backdate charges from
over a decade ago?!

I spoke to the Leaseholder Advisory Service.

They said that I should email the Managing Agent (MA) to say:

1. all those years ago they should have served me with a notice under Section 20 B of the Landlords and Tenants Act 1985 ; and
2. remind then that under the Limitation Act 1980 the limitation period for service charges is 12 years ( rather than 6 years - as the lease counts as a deed , which is a ‘speciality’ for the purposes of the Act).

The MA is claiming that the service charges were incurred as far back as 2009 so I am going to say that their claim is out of time. However the Leasehold Advisory Service said the MA might still fight it and legal costs could be more than the £700. She said if they look like they are going to fight it I should be prepared to pay so that I don’t end up with their costs as well.

I feel so fed up . I just don’t have the £ and I can’t see what’s to stop them doing the same again and again. I can barely pay the almost £400 a month service charge now but do so. Having to pay supposed historic charges as well is too much.

it’s so frustrating. The MA claiming for the service charge is a large charity with huge resources- this is meant to be an affordable flat: it is anything but. I am sorry for moaning but everything seems so hard and unfair at the moment. Hope you don’t mind my offloading. I’m sorry.