late payment fee - ground rent

dowie

dowie

dowie

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Posts
59,185
I got a letter through today from the firm that looks after the freehold for the flat I own. It seems I'm late paying my ground rent and have incurred a few late payment fees....

I've got no issues writing them a cheque and popping it in the post tomorrow though it did bother me that I've not heard from them before. On one hand I guess I, as the leaseholder, ought to have been more proactive about this on the other hand I'd have expected an original invoice and some reminders before incurring late payment fees...

Looking at the letter it seems they've got my address incomplete - they have my flat number & street then it just says London and the last three from the post code. Both the first four from the post code and the area are missing so I'm surprised this letter even reached me at all... it could have ended up at any other similarly named streets in London.

This probably explains why I didn't receive an invoice from them in the first place or any previous reminders before incurring consecutive late fees.

Whats my play - do I simply write a cheque for the ground rent, say I don't accept the fees, point out that the address is incorrect/incomplete and this is the first correspondence I've had from them - after all if they'd addressed any previous correspondence correctly I'd have paid earlier.

Or are these late fees likely legally watertight and can't be disputed/would be a waste of time for me to complain as I'll have to pay them anyway?
 
I know nowt about law, but I personally would reply to the letter saying that this is their first request for moneys, and include a cheque for the rent but not the fees.
 
point out that the address is incorrect/incomplete and this is the first correspondence I've had from them - after all if they'd addressed any previous correspondence correctly I'd have paid earlier.
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I would phone them up or whatever and explain the above and see if you can get the late payment fees dropped seeing as its more than likely you would have paid already if you actually received a reminder
 
They'll say if you recieved that you would have got the others..

Phone up asking if there is any outstanding fees as you have yet to hear from them in any form. When they say "blah loads of letters ur way" insert faux condemnation of their operation and blame them. Ask what address they hold on the system, and to see if it is complete.

Quite potentially a better way to approach it in case you are unfortunate enough to get a knobber on the phone.

;)
 
Doesn't have a stamp rather its been franked by them - on the 1st of Feb and someone (I was assuming the post office) has written the first 4 from the post code on the envelope, in pen... am surprised it reached me though.

Think I'll pay the ground rent, not the fees initially and point out the address issue and lack of receipt of previous correspondence.
 
and whats the date on the actual letter head crap? if its a good amount of days before royal mail manually had someone fix the addy you might be in a good position to dispute the charges
 
Biohazard said:
They'll say if you recieved that you would have got the others..
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I think it's reasonable to assume the firm would need to get the OP's address fully correct in order for the postal service to deliver it, and that on this occasion succesful delivery could just be down to whoever was going through the mail that day and an element of guesswork - in other words there's always the element of doubt as to whether any other letters from the firm were addressed correctly or substantially enough for delivery and I would expect the firm to take responsibility for this.
 
Clearly. That's my point exactly, that sentence was to lean away from phoning up complaining about not getting correspondence from the company due to an impartial address... off the back of a letter he recieved with an impartial address.

What I'm saying - depending on the nature of the firm or operative - is that if they want to play hard ball... that is the ball.
 
Seeing as the address is wrong, does the company actually look after the freehold or is it just fishing?
 
arknor said:
and whats the date on the actual letter head crap? if its a good amount of days before royal mail manually had someone fix the addy you might be in a good position to dispute the charges
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date on letter is 1st of Feb too... - has been franked by them on the 1st so has only been delayed by a day at most (if at all).

I am wondering if they're the ones who've written the first part of the post code on the envelope... there is a return address which would lead me to believe that any previous correspondence would have been returned to them (unless it was delivered to someone else who'd not returned to sender) - this would be even more annoying as it would imply that they've not bothered to updated my address on their system and are still charging me late fees whilst aware that I've not received the invoice.
 
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