I'm a Director of an OMC for an estate & like many other posters on this forum have inherited the thankless task (along with my fellow Director) of collecting Service Charges. Thankfully the common areas were taken in charge by the local Council, so really we only need to collect a very modest annual fee to take care of grass cutting & general maintenance.
We encountered a situation recently whereby a property was sold, but there were service charge arrears on it. Due diligence was not followed by the new vendor's solicitor & enquiries were not made to the OMC about outstanding charges. We've had subsequent (and previous) sales where the OMC was contacted prior to the completion of the sale & any arrears were paid in full.
Our accountant advised that any debt remains with the property & as such we've included the arrears on the yearly invoices. The new owner is now questioning this & refusing to pay the arrears.
Where does the OMC stand in relation to this & what grounds do we have in terms of collecting the debt, i.e. who is liable?
I've reviewed the MUD Act & there isn't anything mentioned about this specific issue relating to service charges.
Any advice would be grateful & please keep in mind that the arrears are very small (only a couple of hundred) plus we don't have huge resources (time/money) at our disposal to pursue this, so real-world suggestions would be best suited.
Many Thanks,
Squa
We encountered a situation recently whereby a property was sold, but there were service charge arrears on it. Due diligence was not followed by the new vendor's solicitor & enquiries were not made to the OMC about outstanding charges. We've had subsequent (and previous) sales where the OMC was contacted prior to the completion of the sale & any arrears were paid in full.
Our accountant advised that any debt remains with the property & as such we've included the arrears on the yearly invoices. The new owner is now questioning this & refusing to pay the arrears.
Where does the OMC stand in relation to this & what grounds do we have in terms of collecting the debt, i.e. who is liable?
I've reviewed the MUD Act & there isn't anything mentioned about this specific issue relating to service charges.
Any advice would be grateful & please keep in mind that the arrears are very small (only a couple of hundred) plus we don't have huge resources (time/money) at our disposal to pursue this, so real-world suggestions would be best suited.
Many Thanks,
Squa