Solicitors gave wrong address!

[summerbeaches]

Hi would love your help with this.

purchased a property 4 years ago, but unbeknownst to me my solicitors gave the wrong correspondence address to the ground rent company. An address that has never been associated with me.

got a letter from them paying nearly £5k in ground rent and late fees etc, they’ve only given me 7 days to pay it before they send debt collectors round. They’ve given proof of the address my solicitors provided.

spoken to my solicitors and I’ve been waiting for a call back for 2 days now as they blame us with them.

what can I do?

The same happened to me. Only found out when I got CCJ. Solicitor got it removed and paid all charges.

Make a formal complaint to the solicitor. They should be paying this and any associated costs because it’s their cock up. They’ll have insurance they can claim against or they can just pay it themselves.

But you entered into the lease knowing the charges and knowing that you had to pay. It’s up to you to rectify.

I’ve not said I’m not paying the charges. I’ve paid my mortgage and service charge etc. My point is that they sent the invoices to an address I’ve never been associated with.

Unfortunately in the eyes of the law, that doesn’t matter. You entered into the lease knowing there was a ground rent and you didn’t pay it. There will be a clause in the lease called Set Off or something similar which says you agree to pay it. If you didn’t get an invoice, you should have contacted the freeholder to try and pay it. That’s what the lease and the law says. I’m not saying you won’t pay it. Your best route is to negotiate with them to pay it off in instalments. Good luck

Update on this thread…
my solicitors have paid all charges as they said it was their mistake.
thank you for all your support.
for those who asked me why I didn’t realise that I hadn’t been sent an invoice - I’ve spent 3 years looking after my dad through a horrible illness and eventually his death, so apologies my priorities were elsewhere.

But if you knew you weren't paying your ground rent then you knew that technically your house could be at risk. Or that you owed that amount.

It wasn't that you should've waited to be invoiced. You knew you weren't paying. You should've been proactive.

My mate had it where his ground rent was being sent to the old managing agent so it was not reaching the current one. So he thought he was paying but he wasn't.

But in your case you simply carried on knowing you weren't paying.