Management companies

[dkcf]

I have some apartments and one in particular is causing a few concerns. It appears that 60% of the tenants/owners have stopped paying the charges to the management company. We have continued to pay, but it now appears that the management company refuse to do any work or any maintenance on the complex.

I have spoken to them and they will not tell me why the people have stopped paying and they tell me that normal service will not resume until all payments, by all people has been made.

Is there anything we can do?

[JustinN]

The exact position is not clear from your query, but I believe it relates to a single apartment owned by you in a block, where the managing agents are refusing to carry out maintenance because a large number of other leaseholders are withholding their service charge payments

A well-drafted lease should not make the performance of the landlord's (or management company's) obligations conditional on third parties (ie: other tenants) paying their service charges. IE: You should not be adversely affected by other peoples' default. However, you would need toi check the exact wording of the lease

In any event, I suggest you find out why the other leaseholders are withholding their service charges and, if the managing agent is doing nothing to resolve any complaints, find out what the other leaseholders are planning to do to resolve matters: they may, for instance, be planning to try to take over direct management of the block. To find this out, as the managing agents will not tell you, you will need to make contact with one or more of the other leaseholders. They should be happy to talk to you, as they will probably want to recruit you to their cause

If there are no good grounds for withholding service charge payments, what are the managing agents doing to enforce payment? The lease probably gives the freeholder the power to forfeit the leases of those who are in default. They can apply for relief against forfeiture, but at least the underlying problems will be brought out into the open, if necessary before a judge, to be resolved

I hope this helps

[dkcf]

Thanks for this. I appreciate it.

Kind Regards