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Yet again! This time Adderstone told to stop loading sub-letting fees

May 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
Dock Mill, Shipley: where – yet again – a freeholder has been trying it on with sub-letting fees

Dock Mill, Shipley: where – yet again – a freeholder has been trying it on with sub-letting fees

A Leasehold Valuation Tribunal has had to tell Adderstone, a freeholder, to stop loading sub-letting fees – in yet another ruling on this subject.

This time it is the Adderstone Group, based in Newcastle, but Estates and Management repeatedly does the same thing.

This is spite of a string of LVT rulings and a clear multiple ruling by the Land Tribunal that a reasonable fee for sub-letting – where there are not special terms and fees in a lease – should be £40 plus VAT.

The Land Tribunal ruling can be read here

The latest ruling (in fact, October 27 2012) involved two leaseholders at Dock Mill, in Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Adderstone attempted to charge £130.20, £104.16 and £78 respectively – which are at the low scale for freeholder try-ons over sub-letting fees.

The LVT was having none of it.

“The Tribunal determines that the Applicants require consent to sublet the Property and the fee for each consent is £40 plus VAT.

“The Tribunal further determines that each sublet of the Property by reason of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy does not require registration under the terms of the lease and consequently no fee is payable for such registration.”

The Adderstone Group was ordered to repay the money, was barred from claiming its costs for the proceedings – £270.48 – and ordered to re-pay to the applicants their application fee of £100.

Adderstone’s attempts to charge the leasehold residents for a couple of emails, a letter and the witness statement for the hearing were dismissed.

Why is the tribunal service having to deal with these ridiculous sub-letting try-ons when the Land Tribunal’s binding ruling is quite clear?

Why are ordinary homeowners or property investors, who have far better things to do, having to go to court repeatedly over this issue?

The full ruling can be read here: subletlvt

Filed Under: Home Middle Left, News, Sub-letting Tagged With: ,

Troy Court £912 leasehold sub-letting fee cut by £400 thanks to LKP (with more to come?)

April 15, 2013 by

TroyCourtcutoutThe Kensington leasehold resident who faced a demand for a ludicrous £912 sub-letting fee for renting out her flat has had the sum reduced by £360, after contacting Leasehold Knowledge Partnership.

The property manager Blenheims has conceded that Claire Jenkinson should not have been invoiced £360 (inc VAT) for the freeholder’s undefined legal expenses.

It is yet to be established whether Ms Jenkinson should have been charged anything at all.

Troy Court’s right-to-manage company decided to introduce a “licence to sub-let” after undesirable short-term tenants, including prostitutes, moved into the prime block of flats at the entrance to Holland Park. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Sub-letting

£912 sub-letting fee demanded at Kensington’s Troy Court – after prostitutes moved in

April 8, 2013 by
Plunder of Troy: How on earth have the RMC – and two legal firms – managed to come up with a £910 sub-letting fee at Try Court?

Treasure of Troy: How on earth have the RMC – and two legal firms – apparently managed to come up with a £912 sub-letting fee at Troy Court?

Troy Court in Kensington High Street – one of the most desirable addresses in the country – has been so plagued by unwelcome tenants, including prostitutes, that it is making flat owners pay eye-watering sub-letting fees that in one case amount to £912, including VAT.

Claire Jenkinson is so incensed by the “astronomical” demand passed on to her by Blenheims Estate and Asset Management Limited that she sent it on to LKP. She is refusing to pay the sum.

“How can they possibly justify these fees, when in the article I have just read on your website indicates that a fee for a licence to sub-let should cost approximately £40?” she writes.

The Land Tribunal, whose decisions are binding on the lower Leasehold Valuation tribunal, made multiple rulings last year on sub-letting fees, declaring that £40 plus VAT was a reasonable charge. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Sub-letting Tagged With: ,

Anchor Trust upsets retirement residents by allowing sub-letting – where the lease prohibits it

April 5, 2013 by
Woodville Grove, in Welling, Kent, where residents are deeply suspicious of Anchor’s policy to ignore the lease and allow sub-letting

Woodville Grove, in Welling, Kent, where residents are deeply suspicious of Anchor’s policy to ignore the lease and allow sub-letting

UPDATE APRIL 5, 17.51: In a statement justifying its policy, Anchor refers to the Office of Fair Trading report which stated that “terms in long leases preventing sub-letting have potential for unfairness” and that “permission [to sub-let] should not be unreasonably withheld”.  See below

A curious dispute is brewing at our sister site Carlex over retirement developments owned and managed by the Anchor Trust housing association.

It has decided to allow sub-letting at these sites even where this is specifically not permitted in the lease. It says it is doing so because retirement flats are proving difficult to sell and sub-letting will relieve the costs on retirement leaseholders, or their heirs, who otherwise would have to pay full service charges on empty flats.

But Anchor’s top-down dictat allowing what in law is not allowed has infuriated residents at Anchor sites and at least three are now in ferment.

At a packed meeting yesterday at Woodville Grove, at Welling in Kent – on the outskirts of London – residents told Anchor executives of their furious opposition to the proposal

“There were bums on seats that have never been on seats at other meetings before,” said resident Barbara Little, 63, who is leading the opposition to Anchor’s new policy at the site. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Sub-letting Tagged With:

Sub-letting leasehold flats should be around £40, LVT rules quoting precedent

July 27, 2012 by

Vanguard House in Hackney, in east London, was built by Barratt which, like many other housebuilders, sold off the freeholds to Proxima GR Properties. The managing agent is Estates and Management.

Leasehold Valuation Tribunals dealing with sub-letting issues are referring to the precedent established in February by the Land Tribunal by slashing landlords’ supposed administration fees.

The fees have long been resented by leaseholders as the consent and registration of a sub-letting are regarded as simply a try-on by landlords, even though a charge of some sort is usually referred to in the lease. £100-135 plus £75 for registration have been routinely charged.

In February the Land Tribunal under George Bartlett, QC, combined four appeals together and ruled that sub-letting fees should be around £40.

Anyone involved in a dispute with a landlord could offer this sort of sum and be in with a fair chance that that would be the end of it.

Justin Hempson-Jones, 33, was more buffed up – legally speaking – than his landlord at the LVT

Justin Hempson-Jones, 33, a civil servant, is the latest to win an LVT ruling on sub-letting fees, and his case is interesting because the tribunal referred specifically to the Land Tribunal ruling, even though he began the action in December last year. The decision date was April 5.

In 2007, Hempson-Jones bought his one-bedroom flat at Barratt’s Vanguard House complex in Hackney, north east London, and let it out last year.

Like many other housebuilders, Barratt flogged off the freehold to the Tchenguiz empire, in this case Proxima GR Properties, the managing agent being the same owners’ Estates and Management Limited.

“When I first saw the fees E and M were asking for I was shocked: after all, what service were they providing other than some very basic administration – a couple of entries in a spreadsheet and a couple of emails?” asked Hempson-Jones.

“When I looked online I realised I was not alone.  Estates and Management, and companies like them appeared to be effectively taxing leaseholders for sub-letting their properties.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Sub-letting Tagged With:

Sub-letting: LKP trials a simple scheme that benefits all

June 16, 2012 by

Around forty quid is what you should be paying for leasehold sub-letting fees to landlords, following this case in February 2012.

Invariably, sub-letting fees are seen as a little earner by landlords, although for the large landlord companies the £100-£130 fees, plus £75 for registration add up to a tidy sum.

Leasehold flat owners renting out their properties often decline to pay up. But it is reasonable that the freeholder and, even more important, the managing agent knows who is actually living in a flat.

As a result, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership has begun work on producing a new sublet agreement template that aims to benefit all parties.

After all, everyone would benefit if new tenants actually knew what the basic rules of a block are. Similarly, the managing agent may need to contact the tenant, flat owner or letting agent at any particular time, and these details should be available.

Leasehold Knowledge Partnership is now testing the first pilot scheme for a new system and will report on the results within the month.

In the meantime, please send in your views on what should be included in a simple sublet agreement.

Email: sok@leaseholdknowledge.com

Filed Under: News, Sub-letting Tagged With: ,

Sub-letting fees should not be more than £40, landlords are told (four times by the Land Tribunal)

June 15, 2012 by

In monetary terms sub-letting fees are one of the more trifling little earners in the leasehold game, but they are deeply resented by flat owners who see that landlords do almost nothing for their money.

Now, it seems, the Land Tribunal agrees with them, ruling in four cases that sub-letting fees should be around £40.

Anyone involved in a dispute with a landlord could offer this sort of sum and be in with a fair chance that that would be the end of it.

Sub-letting fees vary, but charges of £100 – £135 are common, and then there are registration fees of around £75.

Four appeal cases were brought by landlords to the Land Tribunal last February and they were heard together by George Bartlett, QC, president of the Upper Tribunal.

Two appeals were brought by our old friends Peverel, this time trading as Holding and Management (Solitaire) Ltd.

One concerned  a Barratt £123,295 flat in Essex, where the owner was being charged of £105 for this (as well as £75 for the preparation of a deed of covenant and £75 for registration).

The other a £104,500 Barratt flat in Reading, which was being rented out under an assured shorthold tenancy agreement for £750 per month. Solitaire wanted a £135 fee for consent and a notice fee of £75.

Another case, brought by Samnas Ltd, concerned a £122,000 flat in Banbury, Oxfordshire, where the company was after £105 , as well as £75 for registration of the sub-letting.

The last was in Milton Keynes and concerned a £166,000 property where Flambayor Ltd was after £135, and  £75 for the registration.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Peverel, Sub-letting Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,