Freeholder fee's

[Pocster]

Not sure where to post this - this seemed the most suitable forum.

 

I'm on property tribes with this and have spoken to lease-org - not really getting much luck.

 

The freeholder for some crappy flats has suddenly asked for a sublet fee and a deed of covenant with the tenant fee.

 

We've argued the toss as you can imagine. Anyway I finally got the required paperwork to them.

 

I dispute the fee's around £150 each. I asked for a breakdown of the costs i.e. too see the administration of the 'work' involved.

They couldn't provide any. Because there is no work and in their own wording a 'registration' fee.

 

I've offered as stipulated by the lease ( "not less than £50 + vat" ). So £100+vat for both.

 

They've reduced their 'generous' offer a bit. But there's a principle here. Why should I give anyone free money for doing (expletive deleted) all.

 

They now claim I'm still in breach because I haven't paid the fee they want.

 

I've told them to take legal action. But is it fair to assume there's not a lot they can do?. In an extreme situation if we did end up in court it's them that need to justify their costs to a judge.

 

Just wondering if anyone else has had any experience of "fee negotiation " .....

[Pocster]

As it’s a management company you deal with I.e not the freeholder directly I do wonder if there’s some commission to be made ??

[-rick-]

What's the deed of covent for? We recently got asked to complete them as part of the new laws around remediation for cladding issues. There wasn't a charge for that though and we were told we only needed to complete them if we wanted to be protected from any future remediation costs. I don't think that protection is available if you are a professional landlord (>3 properties IIRC). Obviously this is irrelevant if they want the deed for another reason.

 

As far as the fees to register tenants go, this is a thing that comes up. Some managing agents want to charge, some don't. If the lease restricts your ability to rent your place out and allows a fee to be charged to do so then your way out would be to argue the term in the lease is invalid/unlawful for some reason. I don't know how easy this is to do. **

 

I'm a director for the RTM for our block of flats and we are currently searching for a new managing agent. The issue of charging fees for tenant registration has come up and we are seeking an agent that doesn't charge but from the conversations we've had at least some of the agents work on the lease. They feel they have to strictly follow the lease and if the lease involves administration requirements for sub-lets then they have to pass the cost of that on - it's unfair to cover the cost in the service charge/ground rent as it's not something that applies to everyone nor on a consistent frequency.

 

** One of the other directors in our RTM is a landlord and is pretty firm that these fees shouldn't be needed and would be keen to argue over the terms of the lease but he is not a lawyer and I'm not sure of the actual legalities.

[Pocster]

The deed of Covent was for the tenant to sign I.e abide by the lease .

So I’m in breach if the tenant doesn’t sign !!! . I had to ‘force’ the tenant to sign by saying otherwise it would be s21 !

I can’t hold a gun to the tenants head . Technically the lease requesting this ; is where I was stuck .

They have the sublet form ( just for me to sign ) and the deed of covenant as signed by the tenant .

I dispute fees - remember they’ve said no administration breakdown can be provided ; it’s a registration fee …..

I’ve told them to take legal action . 
It wouldn’t surprise me if the freeholder is completely unaware of this and simply the freeholders agent seeing free and easy money for doing nothing .

The agent ; simarc ; states I need to open a dispute via ‘their’ internal method .

Well that’s BS - isn’t it . I’m not going to kangaroo court . 
The principle overrides what in essence is a few hundred quid .