Apartment gone sale agreed owing fees

Seagull said:
You might want to run that practise past a lawyer. My understanding is that you have no grounds to inform the estate agent that the current owner is in arrears with management fees. You might just find yourself at the wrong end of legal proceedings.
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If you read the post clearly, they're not saying that.
 
Seagull said:
You might want to run that practise past a lawyer. My understanding is that you have no grounds to inform the estate agent that the current owner is in arrears with management fees. You might just find yourself at the wrong end of legal proceedings.
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Butter specifically said that "we have gotten in touch with the estate agent in question & pointed out to them that there is a management company in operation in the development & to please ensure the potential purchaser is aware of this. We do not discuss the current status of the account."
 
Butter said:
This is far easier than chasing sellers/getting old fees from new purchasers if something falls through the cracks during the conveyancing process.
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This is exactly what has happened now. The seller has passed the debt on to the purchaser so we now going to have to start chasing them down if they don't pay. Doesn't seem to have been in our control in any event.
 
Leo said:
If you read the post clearly, they're not saying that.
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Thanks Leo. You have read my post correctly. Seagull didn't.

I said we do not discuss the status of the account for the property in question. We merely tell the estate agent a management company is in operation. That's not breaching any data protection laws.
 
How did it slip past the purchaser's solicitor? I think I remember seeing advice here before that you send the bill to the new owner of the property & they have to go back to their solicitor to chase the seller.
Is there nothing on your title deeds about the management company?
 
mf1 said:
"If the MC don't shout then it is of no relevance to the new owner."

Not true. The new owner inherits the debt.

"It is of no importance for a new owner as to what a previous owner did and what he owes."

Not true. The new owner inherits the debt.

mf
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According to mf1 you need to chase the new purchaser.

It appears it's now their debt & it's up to them to pay it and/or to go back to their solicitor about why they've been landed with the bill. Very messy.
 
Butter said:
According to mf1 you need to chase the new purchaser.

It appears it's now their debt & it's up to them to pay it and/or to go back to their solicitor about why they've been landed with the bill. Very messy.
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Yip messy is the word. MUD act being as clear as Mud in this regard anyway.
 
Just to update here...the sale has not yet gone through but I'm comfortable enough that it won't until the fees are recouped. It's a bank sale and these things can take a ridiculous amount of time.
 
Good to see the various opinions here. Management companies have to be onthe ball as it is would be very difficult to get a new owner to take on the debt
 
Vanessa said:
Good to see the various opinions here. Management companies have to be onthe ball as it is would be very difficult to get a new owner to take on the debt
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I'd say impossible really as my read of this is that this debt is personnel debt. This is going to be a bigger problem going forward.
 
@Seagull At no point did @Butler say the account information was revealed to the EA, only the fact that a Management Company existed. Not supplying documents required to complete a sale can be interpreted several ways.
 
There's no need to tell the EA anything other than the fact that a management company exists & to inform the buyer.

The EA doesn't need to be told anything about the supply or not of documentation.

When the seller's solicitor requests documentation they can be informed that it is the policy of the company only to supply documentation when accounts are clear. That could apply to people paying by dd as much as people in arrears.

People get very hot under the collar about data protection - less so, it sometimes seems about owners who refuse to pay what's owed.

Refusing to supply documentation is one of the few ways available to clear accounts in the event of a sale, without incurring a large cost.
 
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