Hi all, hope this is in the right section. I own a leasehold BTL flat in the West Midlands (let’s call it ‘ABC Court’) which I have had since 2019. The managing agent was changed by the freeholder in early 2025 to a company I will call ‘XYZ Management’. Since they took over, things have been a nightmare.
The crux of the issue is that XYZ have been sending me demands for c. £1,800 in alleged service charge arrears going back to Q3 2024, ie before they even took over management. I have receipts and bank statements showing every quarterly payment was made on time to the previous managing agent. I sent copies of all of this to XYZ in January 2026 and heard nothing for three months. Then in April they sent a fresh demand, this time with a threatening letter referencing forfeiture proceedings under the lease, as if the January correspondence had never happened.
I responded again in May, attaching the same evidence plus a formal complaint. Their response (received mid June) was a single paragraph saying they had ‘reviewed the account’ and that their records showed the arrears remained outstanding, with no explanation of how they reached that conclusion or any acknowledgement of the documents I had sent.
My solicitor wrote to them in July setting out the position clearly, referencing the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 s.21 right to inspect the accounts. XYZ responded by sending me a fresh invoice for £1,800 plus £350 in ‘administration fees’. The invoice did not reference the s.21 request at all.
I am now in the position where a) I have paid everything I owe, b) I have documentary proof of every payment, c) they are ignoring my solicitor, and d) they appear to be adding fees on top. My solicitor has suggested applying to the First Tier Tribunal to challenge the charges but has warned that the process can take 6 to 12 months.
Has anyone been through something similar with a managing agent who simply refuses to engage with evidence? Is the FTT route the only realistic option here, or is there something else I should be doing in the meantime to protect my position? TBH the thing that worries me most is the forfeiture threat, even though I understand they cannot actually forfeit without a court order.
Forfeiture over £1,800 in disputed charges is not going to happen. They need a court order and no judge is granting that when you have receipts for every payment. It is a scare tactic and nothing more. FTT application is the right move but do not wait for your solicitor to file it, chase them weekly or it will drift. Also write to the freeholder directly and ask them to confirm whether XYZ have authority to add admin fees under the lease. Half the time these fees are invented.
Mark, Dex is right that the forfeiture angle is posturing. On the FTT application, from recollection the fee is around £100 to £300 depending on the case and you do not strictly need a solicitor to make the application, though having one obviously helps. The tribunal will ask XYZ to produce their actual accounting records, at which point the discrepancy should become obvious. One thing worth doing in the meantime is exercising your s.21 right formally if you have not already done so separately from your solicitor’s letter. That is a statutory right to inspect the accounts and receipts at a reasonable time and place, and they have a duty to comply within 21 days. If they refuse or ignore it, that refusal is itself a summary offence and it strengthens your FTT case considerably. On the admin fees, check the lease wording carefully. Most leases do not allow the managing agent to charge admin fees for their own debt collection activity, and if it is not in the lease they cannot charge it.
Mark, welcome and sorry you are dealing with this.. Had a near identical situation with a managing agent on one of my flats in 2017. New agent took over, claimed arrears from before their appointment, refused to engage with evidence. Turned out they had imported the previous agent’s ledger incorrectly and the opening balance was wrong from day one. They would never have admitted it without the FTT forcing disclosure.
Two practical suggestions. First, contact LEASE (the Leasehold Advisory Service). They are government funded, free, and genuinely useful. They can review your case and sometimes write a letter on your behalf which carries more weight than you might expect. Second, keep a log of every piece of correspondence with dates and response times. The FTT takes a dim view of managing agents who ignore statutory requests and that pattern of non-engagement is evidence in itself.
On the admin fees, agree with Grumpy. Unless the lease explicitly permits them (and most do not), they are unenforceable.. Cheers!
Thanks all, really appreciate the responses. @theartfulfreeholder your 2017 experience is almost exactly what I am dealing with so that is reassuring in a grim sort of way.
Quick update. I drafted a formal letter last night requesting a full itemised breakdown of the alleged arrears, including copies of every demand they claim was sent and the dates. I have sent it recorded delivery this morning and also emailed a PDF copy to the agent’s accounts address. I have given them 14 days to respond.
I am also going to start looking into the FTT route as @GrumpyLandlord47 suggested. From what I can see the application form is fairly straightforward and the fee is manageable. My concern is timescale, does anyone know roughly how long from application to a hearing at the moment? I have heard it can be months.
Mark, good that you have put it in writing recorded delivery.. Belt and braces.
On FTT timescales, my experience (2017 and again in 2021 with a different property) was roughly 4 to 6 months from application to a hearing date. That was pre-covid though and I have heard it is longer now in some regions.. possibly 6 to 9 months. The tribunal does try to resolve things on paper first so there is a chance it never gets to a full hearing if the agent sees you are serious.
One other thing worth doing.. check whether the managing agent is a member of ARMA or IRPM. If they are, you can make a formal complaint through that body as well. It will not fix the problem directly but it adds pressure and creates a paper trail. In my 2017 case the agent folded about three weeks after I copied in ARMA on my correspondence. Coincidence?? Maybe. But I doubt it..
Quick update on this one for anyone still following. Last Friday I received a formal letter from the managing agent’s solicitors (a firm I had never heard of based in Birmingham) threatening county court proceedings if the alleged arrears of £1,247.50 are not paid within 14 days. The letter references the lease clause on service charge recovery and states that the freeholder ‘reserves the right to seek forfeiture of the lease’ if the matter is not resolved.
Now, I have a) every bank statement showing payments made on time for the last three years, b) receipts from the managing agent’s own portal confirming those payments were received, and c) an email from the previous managing agent in 2023 confirming a nil balance when the handover took place. So the idea that I owe £1,247.50 is, TBH, nonsensical.
The forfeiture threat is what worries me most. I understand from reading around that forfeiture for service charges requires the amount to be determined by a tribunal first (under s.168 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002), so the threat is probably hollow, but it is still unpleasant to read in black and white.
I have drafted a response setting out the payment history with copies of all receipts and bank statements attached. My question is whether I should a) send this directly to their solicitors, or b) go straight to the FTT as Rob suggested and let them deal with it there. Part of me thinks responding to the letter is the polite thing to do but part of me thinks it just buys them more time to mess me around.
Hi all, further update on this saga. I spent most of last weekend putting together my formal response to the managing agent’s solicitors’ letter. In the end it ran to four pages plus supporting evidence, which consisted of:
a) Bank statements showing every single service charge payment since 2021, with the reference numbers matching the demands
b) A table cross-referencing each demand received with the corresponding payment date and amount
c) Copies of the two emails I sent to the managing agent in March and May this year querying the discrepancy, neither of which received a substantive reply
d) A copy of the lease clause setting out the service charge payment schedule
I sent it by recorded delivery on Monday and also emailed a PDF copy to the solicitors’ email address on the letter. I kept the tone factual and did not get into the weeds of why I think the managing agent’s accounting is wrong, I just laid out the evidence that I have paid everything demanded.
I also included a paragraph at the end stating that if the managing agent continues to pursue this claim despite the evidence provided, I will refer the matter to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for determination under s.27A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, and that I would be seeking an order for costs.
No response yet but it has only been three days. My plan is to give them 14 days from the date of receipt (which Royal Mail tracking shows as Tuesday) and then file the tribunal application if nothing comes back.
Any thoughts on whether I should also copy in the freeholder directly? I have their registered address from Companies House but have never had any direct dealings with them.
Mark, yes, copy in the freeholder. In my experience the freeholder and the managing agent often have a cosy relationship but that does not mean the freeholder wants to be dragged into a tribunal. A letter to the freeholder saying their appointed agent is pursuing a claim you can demonstrate is baseless, and that you intend to escalate, has a way of concentrating minds. Keep it factual, attach the same evidence pack, and make clear you are copying them in so they are aware of the dispute. If the managing agent has been sloppy with the accounting it is entirely possible the freeholder does not know about it. That said, manage your expectations. Some freeholders are shell companies with a registered agent and nobody reads the post.
Mark, agree with Grumpy on copying in the freeholder. I would add one thing from experience.. When I went through a similar dispute in 2017 the managing agent folded within a week of receiving my tribunal application. They did not want to go anywhere near a hearing because the tribunal would have asked to see their full accounts and they knew the numbers would not stack up.
The tribunal fee is modest (from memory around £100-300 depending on the amount in dispute) and the process is surprisingly straightforward for a litigant in person. Most managing agents know this and it is the threat rather than the reality that does the work.
One more thing.. if you do file, request that the tribunal also determines whether the service charges are reasonable under s.19 as well as whether they are payable under s.27A. Belt and braces.
Quick Friday update. No response yet from the managing agent’s solicitors since I sent my four page response on Monday. Is silence at this stage a good sign or a bad one? Part of me thinks they are digesting the evidence and realising they have overplayed their hand. Part of me thinks they are just slow. Artful or Grumpy, any view on whether I should chase or sit tight over the weekend?