Legal Costs on Management Fee's

I was slow paying my management fee's and received a letter from a legal company requesting i pay up within 7 days.We were six months into the year at the time( I owed that years charge plus about 100 quid from the prev yr), I forgot to pay them which I know is not an excuse but as soon as I received the letter I split the outstanding amount by 6(six months to go until next years charge) and transferred the first amount within a couple of days of receiving the letter. The next month I sent the second amount but about a week later a received another letter from the same legal company saying I had failed to respond and they were going to bring me to court, they were looking for the original amount(they had not deducted the payments I had made) plus some additional legal costs. I wrote to them as soon as I received this letter explaining I had began to pay off the debt and to contact the management company to verify this...this is the last I heard from them....I received a statement from my management company with an additional 150 euro charge for legal costs

My question is can they do this without even notifying me...what are my options to get this removed....I contacted the management company and they simple said I sould have paid on time, I tempted not to pay any further management charges!

I would advise paying up immediately. It can only get worse, it won't go away. you say it's a few hundred Euro, if you have it you may as well pay it, even if you miss a party or something this weekend.

They do seem to have informed you of their intents, with the letters. You were already overdue, were you?, and you decide to make partial payments?, did you inform them of this? Hopefully that second letter was sent from them pretty recently and you'll be ok if you pay in full now.

Yes, I imagine that they are perfectly entitled to bill you for any money spent in chasing you around and forcing you to pay what's owed.. it's quite common.

I was going to say maybe you could ask for the 150 legal bill to be removed, thinking about it you should pay it too.. no-one is going to pay it for you, and the legal company is probably only due that 150 from the whole affair, so they won't write it off and receive nothing, why would they?

So my advice would be pay it off in full and it will be gone. Ignore it, or insist on doing it your own way and it will likely get worse, and in the end you'll pay more.

For starters - you should NEVER use witholding fees as a protest tool. Firstly you are breaching the contract you signed at purchase where you agreed to pay fees. Secondly you are potentially damaging the financial stability of the development.

Back to your query.

Q1 - when you say 6 months into the year, do you mean June? Company financial years can begin in any month so what you consider to be 6 months could be 1 month or 11 months.

Q2 - Did you speak to the management AGENT (who I think you are confusing with the management company) to see if you could pay your fees in this way. The management agent is a contractor hired by the management company (of which you became a member at purchase) to manage the day to day running of the development.

I'm guessing you didn't discuss this with the agent. If not are they meant to be psychic? You hadn't paid your fees in full or in part within 30 days of the issue of the invoice (standard terms) so they handed the matter over to a collection agent.

When you decided how you were going to pay your fees you transferred money to the management company account, managed by the agent. The legal company would not have been informed of this payment as they will have been hired to recover the debt in full, if you don't send it to them, how are they supposed to know?

There are costs involved in collecting outstanding debts. If you don't pay them who are you expecting to pay them? If you say the management company think again - the management company is you and all the owners in the development. You would be expecting your neighbours to subsidise your decision not to pay your fees on time?

You caused the cost to be incurred, you need to pay it. Next time you get an invoice for fees, read it to see what the payment options are. Some developments require full payment within 30 days, others permit direct debits a couple of times a year. I have never heard of any development who allows owners to pick and choose how and when they pay their fees - the company needs money to pay for insurance, maintenance, refuse etc, they need to know that that money will be there at a certain time.

It seems to me, without wanting to seem patronising, that you don't understand the implications and responsibilities of living in a managed development. If you confuse the management company and agent it's a sign that you probably should do some more research. Robert Gogan's book on apartment living is a good start. After that, you need to read your sales/lease agreement in detail.

I'm just an owner, who when I bought our place didn't know as much as I needed to about living in a managed development. But my apartment is the biggest investment/responsibility I have in my life so I made it my business to get informed. I then stood as a company director at our first AGM and have been one for the past four years. I highly recommend being an active member of your management company, it's the best way to ensure your best interests are protected.

Thanks for the scolding it was very enlighting and gives me alot to think about

Sorry - I can't help it when I go into management company mode! Like I said, I didn't know all this when we bought either and though our solicitor really explained everything in the contract, there's nothing that can prepare you for the complexities of living in a managed development. That book only came out last year so I didn't even have that but I seriously recommend it. If you have any other queries I'd be glad to answer.