Help - charging orders

[Gizzmobia]

I'm the company secretary of a building management company that was basically set up to own the freehold of a property that comprises 3 flats.

One of the owners consistently can't find the money to pay their annual charge and has had visits from debt advisors sent by their mortgage company (it came as a shock to that company to find the flat rented out!)

We have now received letter from the land registry for them, gut feeling is that it is probably a charging order.

Is there any way I can find out whether there is a charge and what effect does this have on the company?

Also, the address on their letter was wrong, it went to the ground floor flat, should he be looking at contacting the land registry to protect himself? (I'm concerned the charge may wrongly be against his flat)


Any advise on what action we can take to retreive the annual payment would also be welcomed

[Buenchico]

The title registers held by the Land Registry are public documents. Anyone can download a copy of the title register for a particular property for £4. The title register will show, among other things, details of any charges against the property:
http://www.landregist...ortal/Property_Search

If someone owes you or your company money the first step is always to send a formal written demand for the money. (No court will consider making an order in your favour unless that has been done). The letter should clearly show the name and address of your management company, and that of the recipient. It must also be dated and leave it no doubt that it is a formal demand for payment. (Actually heading the letter 'Demand for Payment' is a good idea). Further it should clearly indicate that if payment is not received within a specified period (I suggest 21 days) legal action will be initiated against the debtor.

If payment is not forthcoming within the specified period, commence legal action. The simplest way to do so is to use Her Majesty's Courts Service's online system:
http://tinyurl.com/5kwx6

Chris

[bushbaby_de]

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, I thought the OP wanted advice on what might happen to the management company if someone else puts a charge on the property, not that they wanted to apply for a charge?

[Androcles]

I have just been through this. I am a director of a management company where the shareholders are the leaseholders and we have a block of four maisonettes and three blocks of six flats each. One of the flats was owned by a buy to let landlord, who did not pay any of the charges, for two years. We have done all the things that Chris suggested, but discovered that owner/leasehlders, even though they are landlords thenselves are protected and we have to take a case to the land valuation tribunal to get our charges declared justified, before we could take action to re-possess the flat. We would then have solde it and after deducting our charges and the total expenses incurred, given them the balance.

In fact the guy was not paying anything else either and his building society foreclosed on him and he was declared bankrupt. The administrator accepted the charges were legit and paid up in full, so we were able to avoid going to tribunal.

We had a clause in our lease which said that in such cases we were able to charge interest at 15%pa on a daily basis on all outstanding charges from the day they became due as well as all legal and administrative expenses incurred in chasing the debt, so hi bill racked up pretty quickly.

You need to check your lease carefully to see what remdies you have - in some cases (although not in this case) most people when they see that the charges can rack up will pay up, otherwise small claims court and if that doesn't work go for re-possession. You will need legal advice though.