taken to court over fees

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rion

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Hi I would like some advice for my partner he owns a house which has management fees he is unable to pay these fees as he is struggling to pay the mortgage and has fallen behind on this..

He owes 1000 euro to management company who have been on the phone to him he explained that he is putting every penny he has in the mortgage trying to hold on to the house and has none left to pay management fee their reply was thats fine we will see you in court.. Can anyone give me some advice on what he should do about this situation.. Many thanks!!
 
Unfortunately your partner is legally liable to pay his fees..this is what he signed up to at purchase. The fees are what keep the management company going, which is why they would be taking legal action to recover them. Management companies rarely have the leeway in their budgets that the banks do so while it may seem heartless, pursuing all owners for fees is necessary.

As to what they can achieve in court...they can't get blood out of a stone...so a judgement mortgage against the property may be the most the MC can get. Having said that they would be entitled to withdraw services from your partner's property. Luckily it's a house so they shouldn't be able to withdraw insurance from the property, if it was an apartment this could have had implications for your partner's mortgage (the banks require insurance to be in place).
 
rion, your partner will end up going to court. however its not all bad. It will probarbly be better to go to court as you can then draw a line in the sand over the issue.

However there a number of steps that you can take to counter argue your case. I am reluctant to publish them as Management Companies (Agents) read this forum as well as "us punters".
If you want I will PM you with the info.
 
computerman said:
rion, your partner will end up going to court. however its not all bad. It will probarbly be better to go to court as you can then draw a line in the sand over the issue.
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The only way to draw a line in the sand regarding an inability to pay management fees is to sell the property so you will not have the fee anymore. Apart from that the overdue fees will have to be paid and there is probably legal and admin costs and the fees for the next year will also fall due and need to be paid.

computerman said:
However there a number of steps that you can take to counter argue your case. I am reluctant to publish them as Management Companies (Agents) read this forum as well as "us punters".
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The person who is liable for the fee is a member/ owner of the management company. There is nothing from the OPs post to indicate that there is any reason that the fees should not be paid. There are serious implications to not paying management fees so the OP should consider whether it would make sense to pay less to mortgage provider.
 
computerman said:
rion, your partner will end up going to court. however its not all bad. It will probarbly be better to go to court as you can then draw a line in the sand over the issue.

However there a number of steps that you can take to counter argue your case. I am reluctant to publish them as Management Companies (Agents) read this forum as well as "us punters".
If you want I will PM you with the info.
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I reiterate and repeat my original post.
 
Why would you give people pointers to avoid paying management fees?? So that the rest of the owners in the development can support them??
 
GarBow said:
Why would you give people pointers to avoid paying management fees?? So that the rest of the owners in the development can support them??
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Why are there shiny offices full of highly-paid professionals in Dublin full of people who are paid to give people pointers to avoid paying tax? So that the rest of the country can support them??
 
Complainer said:
Why are there shiny offices full of highly-paid professionals in Dublin full of people who are paid to give people pointers to avoid paying tax? So that the rest of the country can support them??
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Reducing your tax bill by utilising good legal advice is not breaking the law though.
 
As an owner and director of a home in a managed development I am horrified at the suggestion that anyone can avoid paying management fees. Without these fees basic services cannot be provided. We work hard to keep fees as low as possible and every year since the owners took over in 2005, our fees have come down. We have to pursue owners that don't pay, that money is what keeps our buildings insured, our refuse collected and common areas maintained.
 
I was not suggesting that the op not pay his management fees. I was going to explain how to keep the court costs to a minium and in the course of doing so get the management agent to reconsider court in the first place.

Dont be reading into things that are not there.
 
"It will probarbly be better to go to court as you can then draw a line in the sand over the issue."

"I was going to explain how to keep the court costs to a minium and in the course of doing so get the management agent to reconsider court in the first place."

Which is it?
 
Hi

Just to get back to the question that the OP has.

If you could see yourself to making even a small contribution to the charges this may be enough to stop court action. It is by saying that you cannot pay anything that will make the option of court acton more likely.

If there is any legal costs incurred they will most likely be added to your bill and the fact that there is unpaid management fees is likely to be an issue when it comes to selling the house. So you cannot get away without paying them in the long run.

So I suggest that you come to an arrangement to pay the fees even if just a very small amount (even say €50 per month) as this token payment may be enough.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Kind Regards

capnhand
 
rion said:
Hi I would like some advice for my partner he owns a house which has management fees he is unable to pay these fees as he is struggling to pay the mortgage and has fallen behind on this..

He owes 1000 euro to management company who have been on the phone to him he explained that he is putting every penny he has in the mortgage trying to hold on to the house and has none left to pay management fee their reply was thats fine we will see you in court.. Can anyone give me some advice on what he should do about this situation.. Many thanks!!
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The fact is your partner needs to come up with a plan. If he comes up with a plan to pay the service charge in a reasonable space of time it would look good if it ever did go to court and it is reasonable to expect the management company to accept the offer.

It would be irresponsible of the management company to let your partner drift into arrears which he may never be able to pay and would be wholly unfair to the other owners.

Take the annual service charge, divide by 12 to get the monthly repayment and that is the minimum any management company should accept.
 
I am wondering if anyone here can help or advise me. I have an apartment and a management company. For the first 2 years I paid the fees but they never did anything they said they were going to do with regard to maintaining the building etc. So after begging for months on end I finally gave up and wrote to them and told them that I felt they were in breach of contract and I would no longer pay until they fulfilled their terms. they are now gone and a new management company have been brought in. They are doing a great job and I have been happy to pay them so far. However they are looking for the arrears on my account. But i said I would not pay them as I was not paying for a service I was not provided. i have now been sent a court date.... do I stand a chance of fighting my case???
 
Lilybear said:
do I stand a chance of fighting my case???
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Yes of course you do. A contract is a 2 way agreement. In return for the fees paid by you the management company agreed to provide a certain level of service. If they failed to provide that service then they are also in brech of the agreement. However unless they failed to honour any of the terms of the contract you would have been expected to pay some funds towards whatever portion of service was provided.
Your best option is to write to the new company outlining specifically where the previous company failed to provide the level of service contracted. Ideally offer to pay a sum of money that you consider to be appropriate to cover the services that were provided. Hopefully that should result in an amicable solution.
 
Hi 44Brendan,

I'm afraid at the time I did offer this ( this is going on 3 years now) I offered to pay for bins and insurance and lighting as these services were provided to me. They sent a debt collector to me and I made a payment plan with him and agreed that I would honour this for 3 months and in those 3 months I would like the other terms met such as window cleaning, building cleaning, repairs etc. I paid by DD for 3 months and then after nothing was done I contacted the debt collector and told him i was cancelling the DD. He said he could see I had tried all aspects and that he could not fault me and would pass on the message. 3 weeks later that company were gone and a new one elected. It appears however that alll my paperwork etc has been "lost" although I have copies of some I dont have copies of all. I dont mind paying the arrears on what services I did get but I just cant get my head around the fact that I would have to pay all. I am very worried as if this does not go my way I will also end up with the massive court expenses.
 
As I would see it you have made a very reasonable attempt to deal appropriately with the previous management company. Given the circumstances as you have outlined them Im sure that provided that the new company adopt a reasonable approach you should not be overly concerned. Even if a case is taken to Court you can offer a reasonable defense. Write to the new company and set out the circumstances as you have outlined. No need to mention that you don't have exact records of what you paid or agreed. Their own records are unlikely to be complete. Offer to pay them whatever portion of arrears you think is reasonable and I'm reasonably sure that they will not progress any action against you.
 
The Management Company has not changed, they have employed new Managing Agents.
 
Sorry jewex, you are correct... my mistake in typing. I have discussed these details with the new agents and they are still saying they want all the arrears...so it looks like I may just have to take my chances in court.:( does anyone know if there is and ombudsman for management agents or a commitee as such as I would like to go in as prepared as possible.
 
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