Management company holding up sale

[Dahliasandtea]

my husband owns a flat which we are trying to sell. We got an amazing offer at the end of summer…. With all the Truss chaos and everything it’s held on amazingly and we are hoping it will go through. BUT it’s being managed by a management company. They haven’t released the ‘pack’ to the buyers because they are saying there are outstanding payments due… and therefore debt associated with the property: namely some work done on the roof (which they said originally would be covered by insurance) and a few years worth of management fees (this is not just us it’s al the other property owners in the building). They have never sent any invoices or as far as we (or other property owners in the block ) are aware, chased for payement or told us the insurance wasn’t covering the roof work and that we would be liable.

the buyers lawyer and mortgage bank is asking for the debt to be cleared (quite rightly) but the management company is now ignoring our calls emails and seems to be oblivious to the fact that we cannot pay a bill we don’t have invoices for or justifications for. We will probably lose the sale if this drags on much longer but they don’t care… they manage the property anyway and it won’t bother them… they get the fees whether we own the property or not.

can we force them to release the pack? Can we force them to send us invoices? Can we start legal proceedings against them? Can we sue them if we lose this sale?

If you join the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group and ask on there you will get helpful advice. Lots of well informed people on there.
Who is your Freeholder and/or managing company?

Unbelievably the law does not force FHs or MCs to respond and provide this necessary information. One of the many issues which needs to be addressed in this feudal leasehold system (which most countries have done away with).
www.lease-advice.org/faq/im-selling-my-property-is-my-landlord-obliged-to-respond-to-pre-sale-enquiries/#:~:text=These%20forms%20are%20not%20mandatory,be%20willing%20to%20do%20so.

Lots of helpful advice on landlord zone forum.

I think you can under the landlord and tenant act force them to send you certain info (this isn't the management pack though), but it might help with uncovering how much you owe them.

It's very stressful that another org can perform poorly and then have a negative impact on you financially. It's a dreadful system.

Is the management company a paid for company or run by flat owners?

I have lived in and owned flats - and learnt the hard way about having a well run management company. Any solicitor receiving such information would be right to advise caution to a buyer.

if you don’t manage to sell, all the flat owners need to work together to sort out the management company as it will affect other sales in the future.

@SallyLockheart its a paid for company. Apparently they have ‘always’ managed the property and they have to be voted out by all the property owners if they want to change. Getting everyone together and to discuss and to agree is a nightmare so they have just always stayed.
personally I would have probably taken them on if it was my property but it’s my husbands and I’ve just always left him to deal with it…. But now it’s affecting me and I’m furious.

@Autumnaltimes thanks I’ll have a look

@20questions thanks! I’ll have a look. It’s so frustrating. We have wanted to sell it for ages and never would have made money. Then this bubble in summer meant we had an offer within 3 weeks of putting it on the market. If we Lose this we will have to drop the price by probably more than we will have to pay. We don’t mind paying it if we owe them which we def think we do… (there is a possibility we could question the roof works liability but we owe them management fees….) but they won’t even tell us how much we owe them.

Apparently they have ‘always’ managed the property and they have to be voted out by all the property owners if they want to change

If you go the right to manage route IIRC you only need 50% of the leaseholders to agree to the process, so I think your management company is being a bit economical with the truth there. The difficulty with RTM is that getting agreement to get the process actually started is like herding cats - I've been trying for a decade. Everyone says 'oooh, GOOD idea,' then I send all the details and either it all goes quiet or people move and I have to start again.