Management fees wrongly calculated - recourse from MC?

shesells

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This is an unusual situation...just wondering if anyone has any advice.

Auditors flagged an error in budget apportionment in this year's accounts. Basically the fee structure was set up at the planning stage but before permission was granted. We have 1 bed apartments, 2 bed apartments and duplexes, 3 bed duplexes and houses and 4 bed houses, each paying a certain percentage of the budget. Because there must have been a change between what was applied for and what was granted...the total % of the budget people agreed to pay was about 99.1%...leaving a small shortfall each year. We didn't realise our MA had rounded the percentages up slightly to bring it to 100%...meaning over 6 years, units may have paid €40-120 in total over their lease agreements.

This is not the biggest issue, though it's one we have noted. In studying the figures for this we requested copies of the deeds/leases for each unit type. We then noticed that 2 and 3 bed units are contracted to pay different % of the budget depending on what type of unit...eg 3 bed duplexes 1.4%, 3 bed houses 1.65%. The houses are slightly bigger so that makes sense. Until you look at the budget and see that the budget is split into 1, 2, 3 & 4 bed units.

So basically, a 3 bed duplex has been paying 0.25% more of the budget than their contract...1.5% over the 6 years. That's a not insignificant amount of money.

Do the duplex owners have any course for recourse against the MC for this overpayment? Does the MC have any grounds for pursuing the MA for their error in collecting funds?
 
You're right - that is unusual. I know of a situation where the reverse happened - apportionment was done on the wrong number of properties and now there is a small shortfall which results in everyone owing something. It was decided to draw a line under it and fix it going forward.

What does the master lease say? I think you'll need actual legal advice to sort it out.
 
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