Hello Andy, Sorry for the delay. 1.) I received no demand whatsoever. Recently, two of my neighbours have failed to receive demands also. 2.) I find nothing in the lease that states admin fees are payable. 3.) I will have to recheck the summary and ensure it complies. 4.) The fee is £120 which I feel unreasonable for sending one letter.

Hello again, I paid the outstanding GR immediately upon realisation, it is just the admin fee that I have refused to pay. I have heard nothing for a week, however, expect to have to take the issue to LVT to hopefully have the unreasonable admin fee struck off. I should mention, the admin fee was £120. This was reduced to £60 due to circumstances as long as I paid within one week. When I declined the offer was made 'until the end of the business day'. Again, I refused, thus assumed the admin fee would revert to the full £120 and this would be contested at LVT. An email from the Director a few days later referred to the fee as £60. Either way, left hand talking to right hand, they have no idea.

Apologies for any confusion. To make clear, I have received no invoice correspondence from the FH what so ever. I received a letter in February 2012, to state that they had acquired the FH. This letter was also incorrectly addressed, however, on this occasion it managed to find its way to my letter box. Further to this introductory letter, I have received no invoices and required S166 Summary. The next correspondence was the LBA, again, incorrectly addressed. I have spoken to other residents of this block of flats. Two of whom failed to receive the most recent invoice where as two others did. Both those who did not receive the invoice have attempted to contact the FH but emails and telephone calls have gone unanswered.

I wish you luck Ruth. I am in the same position as you, however, the FH won't back down despite no clause being present.

Lea_HTH, Your complete ignorance, arrogance and stupidity has given me much delight today. Raydetinu, Two of my neighbours have no knowledge of any freehold offer and a further neighbour has also stated that they too failed to receive any correspondence from the FH.

You do not know the facts and have made incorrect assumptions. However, feel free to pay the £60 or £120 on my behalf.

Lea_HTH, No, no invoices at all were received. The fee was £120, reduced to £60 if I paid within 48 hours that I clearly did not. I can only assume that you failed to read the entire post as your comment is rather harsh. I'm sure that you would contest the issue if you were in the same situation.

Hello, Having received the following email today from the FH, I'd be grateful for your thoughts: We refer to your letter of 2nd July 2013. We no longer wish to enter into protracted correspondence with yourself. We have made our position quite clear. 3 invoices and a letter before action were all sent to the same address. Yet you aver that only the letter before action was received by yourself. We have offered to reduce our administration charge by 50%. We are not prepared to negotiate this matter any further. If you wish to refer this matter to the LVT, then that is your prerogative. In our experience the LVT does not take too kindly to hearing applications in respect of such modest sums.

I'm not looking to sell for two or three years, it's a matter of principle so do not intend to just pay it. I have asked a neighbour if he recalls being offered sale of the Freehold.

Hello andydd, Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. To clarify, I have not received valid demands. However, this is my word against the FH as it seems previously that other residents (there are 12 flats) received demands earlier this year. That being said, further demands were issued in May and at least 3 residents did not receive the demand. I mentioned this to the FH, who has subsequently resent a demand to my neighbour. The summary of rights regarding admin fee was sent. However, a charge for £120 for a Letter Before Action that was strewn with errors was highly unreasonable. I attempted to explain the circumstances, but the FH wouldnt listen and wouldnt accept that they had the address wrong, albeit partially. I have asked time and time again for the FH to clarify the clause in the lease that relates to allowing admin fees, however, they havent answered the question. The outstanding ground rent was paid in May. It was sent on the first working day after I received the initial letter and I had spoken to the FH in person. I made it very clear that I would challenge the admin fee, however, to say that communication with the freeholder has been stressful is an understatement. The issue I have, is that I want to clear this charge from my account. Otherwise, if I ignore it and the FH takes no action, it will still be present when I come to sell the property. I had a stern email from the Director last week saying that reducing to £60 is a fair compromise and he expected payment forthwith. Naturally, I refused. A letter was sent recorded delivery to which I wait a reply. From memory, I have no recollection of being offered the freehold. Any further advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I have found nothing in the lease regarding late fee payments. I have asked the FH 7 times to point out which clause covers any fees and they have failed to answer. I do not think a typo as they emailed two invoices to me, both of which omitted the street number. The FH refuses to back down, despite the fact I have highlighted all their errors. I have no choice but to refer the matter to LVT.

Hello Raydetinu, I received a letter stating that they had bought the freehold, but received no invoices for ground rent subsequently. After I contacted them they sent the alleged invoices in an email which is where I noticed the address wasn't correct. The address the invoices were allegedly sent to is different to that in my lease.

Thank you.

Hello, I am hoping that someone will be able to offer some advice. The basic scenario is this: I own a two bedroom leasehold flat. In May I received a ‘Letter Before Action’ from the Freeholder. This document stated that the ground rent was in arrears, this was payable within 14 days and a ‘Letter before action’ fee of £120 was added to my account “as per the enclosed summary”. Now, prior to this letter, I had received no invoices for Ground Rent from this company that complies with legislation. I immediately contacted the Freeholder. The Freeholder in question had purchased the Freehold approximately 14 months previously. Prior to this, all Ground Rent was paid to the original builder of the new build property. I offered to pay the ground rent arrears immediately, however refused to pay a £120 Letter before action / admin fee as I deemed unreasonable. I explained that I had received no invoices and the only previous correspondence had been over a year previously when they introduced themselves as the new freeholder. I pointed out that the “enclosed summary” was incorrect, as one of two periods shown had been paid to the predecessor. The matter has been going back and forth for the past 6 weeks. In this time, I have established and pointed out the following facts: 1.) The correspondence address that the freeholder holds for me is inaccurate. It contains Flat Number, Block of Flats Name, Road Name, Postcode. However, it neglects to include the Number of the road if that makes sense. For example, correspondence has been addressed Mr Joe, Flat 1, ABC House, ABC Road, AB1 2CD, instead of Mr Joe, Flat 1, ABC House, 46 ABC Road, AB1 2CD. I attempted to explain that the address that they have allegedly sent post to was not exact as that on my lease and this could explain as to why invoices had not been received. There are also a number of other blocks on this road that also incorporate the name ‘house’ in their title. 2.) Other residents have failed to receive recent documentation allegedly sent by the freeholder. In communication with the freeholder, they have stated that they have sent ‘similarly addressed’ letters. I point out that I have no ‘similar’ address, only an actual address. I point out that I received their incorrectly addressed letter by chance, as I cannot rely on the postman to get it right as its not correctly addressed. I have raised numerous points with the freeholder yet they have failed to return emails. I have asked simple questions such as asking for the Freeholder to confirm the clause in the lease that allows them to charge admin fees yet having asked this question 6 times, I have received no answer. I have threatened with taking the matter to LVT to allow for determination as to reasonableness, however I get no response. £120 for a letter sent from an office with no Solicitor involvement is absurd. I have asked for details of the complaints dept, Director etc, but they have failed to provide these. The email chain has continued this week. At one point, the individual with who I have been dealing, accidently sent an email to myself that should have been sent to a colleague within their organisation, asking “Are you going to reply to Average Joe, or are you ignoring him?” I have repeatedly refused to pay the £120. This week they have offered to reduce the fee to £60 if I paid within 7 days. Again, I refused, then it was changed to £60 by Fri 28th. I am so frustrated, by the aggressive tactics that this freeholder is using. In your experience, where do I stand and what should I do? Thanks