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kporter229

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About kporter229

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  1. I am going to compose a letter to them tomorrow and pay this year's charges only. When I sent them a cheque 2 years ago, I told them that it was full and final payment for the account to date and they should only bank the cheque if they accepted that. I was only paying the due ground rent even though they had put about £300 or arrears for the insurance on, and they did in fact bank the cheque - so as far I am concerned that has cleared all the arrears. I will not pay the arrears from then as I have no idea how they have arrived at the new figure. I will pay last year's ground rent and this year's but no further arrears. I think I might also pay the £12 admin for missing last year's rent even though I consider it unfair. Having checked the lease, I can see that to be fair I should be paying the ground rent without an invoice, but this invoice does include the ground rent due in September so they shouldn't be asking for that yet. I think in future I will send them a cheque just before the due date every 6 months rather than the double payment every year just to give them a bit extra work! The ground rent is only £15 pre annum, so I reckon two cheques of £7.50 will cost them more in admin than its worth!
  2. Wow - I have just managed to talk to someone (Robert) at Coppen Estates on the phone as I have just received my annual ground rent invoice. There is an admin charge on there for non-payment of last year's ground rent. I didn't pay because I didn't get an invoice, but apparently it is my responsibility to tell them that I haven't got it! I also asked about the arrears charges that are there from non-payment of the insurance charge. I have sent the required notice in every year, but apparently I have completed it incorrectly. I asked what was wrong with them, but they won't tell me because they are not required by law to tell me! Two years ago when I did manage to talk to someone about this, I was told they don't look at them until a sale is going through and then if they are in order they will take it off the invoice. Clearly they have changed their plan to fleeces as much money out of people as possible. What an awful company they are!
  3. I am now in shock. Coppen have answered the phone!! I spoke to a guy called Robert but didn't really get anywhere. He told me their procedure was to continue billing for the insurance charge despite receiving the notice, and when they property comes up for sale they look to check the validity of the notices! He told me I was in order to continue just paying the ground rent and that the admin charge of £6 was a mistake and would be taken off the account. He is going to email me a revised invoice. I didn't go into the fact that the invoice was invalid because it was not laid out correctly. I then raised the point that they ignored every communication I had had with them, to which he had no answer. I particularly raised the point about them ignoring my counter offer to buy the freehold reversion last year (I'm not sure that's the correct phrase there!) . He said he could see the offer on file, but the actual freehold was owned by another individual and they were the middle man and only followed instructions. I pointed out that it was one of their directors (Alan Pennington I think) that was named as the owner of the lease, but he claimed not to know he was a director!
  4. Although the demand letter is invalid and doesn't need to be paid, I think I've read somewhere that they would be allowed to accumulate the outstanding ground rent and claim it in a proper invoice. Is that correct, or does the fact that the demand letter is invalid mean they can't invoice for it all later?
  5. Well, what a surprise. My invoice has just arrived and it has the annual insurance charge on again, along with £201 of arrears! I'm at a loss as to what to do now. I've tried ringing them but as others have said they never answer. I tried the financial ombudsman as they are regulated by the FCA, but they couldn't help. I've tried the leasehold advisory service but again they couldn't offer any help other than going to a tribunal as Jeffrey mentioned above. I guess I'll just send my £15 ground rent again with a covering letter.
  6. Worth pointing out that even though I have sent the correct notice of cover every year fro the last 3/4 years, Coppen still include the charge on my invoice. I have sent them numerous letters telling them that they are wrong to do this, but they never reply. The last couple of years I have sent them a cheque for the ground rent only, with a covering letter stating that acceptance of the cheque is on condition that it is full and final payment of everything in the invoice. They still continue to include the charge, together with arrears and an admin charge! I am expecting my annual invoice in the next couple of weeks and anticipate it will still have the charges on it.
  7. Is there a Notice of Claim form available to download anywhere, so that I can try getting a response from Coppen?
  8. Interesting - the three schemes have lists of members on their websites. Coppen doesn't appear to be on any of them!
  9. Thanks for your replies, vincentb and iwbsheff. I was a bit wary of sending an official form in, as I really want to know what it is going to cost me first in case I can't afford it! Do you have a link to a copy of the notice of claim form that I can download? Most of the information I can find seems to refer to collective enfranchisement for groups of flats. And yes, I paid the £45 in my first year but questioned it this year. I asked for a reference to the payment in the lease and how £45 could be classed as reasonable. As you may guess - not got a reply! I also paid nearly £400 for them to agree to me having a conservatory built. Given the speed of their reply (yes they did reply), they cannot have done anything other than give it a cursory glance and quickly cash the cheque!
  10. Good luck with this. My two years was up last December, and I have twice requested a figure from Coppen as to how much the freehold would cost. I wrote to them with my cheque for the ground rent which was cashed, so I know the have received the letter. They have totally ignored this and I'm not sure what my next step is.
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