Compton / Tapestart

[Carryon Regardless]

Comptons are up to their now familiar tricks, in that they are taking me to Court again.

This time 5 court claims.

The ususl, CCOL, Court allocation, moved to another Court (Chesterfield), who have ordered that these be transferred to the First Tier Property Tribunal, Birmingham.

I can see the sense in that, although it's a first for me. So now I wonder if legal representation is an expectation, intelligent (as clearly not cheap), or is this designed to be more informal and just possibly a first step that may be basic and not need great invovlement.

I have believed for some time that the continual harrassment by Compton will need addressing in a formal Court invironment, in hope to reduce the time consuming and wasteful effort to deal with them and their abusinve ways.

 

Anyone with experience on this?

 

[Melboy]

 

 

                       Why are Comptons taking you to court again?

[Carryon Regardless]

Their strategy is to over price anything they could feasably charge a lease holder for.

At my flats there are 2x grass areas at the front. 20ft x 15ft approx (each). The 1st year they took over the freehold that came in at £1,640 for grass cutting, 2nd year £1,311. I had already reached agreement in 2005 with the previous freeholder that I would take that on, Comptons wouldn't accept that.

There were charges for a 24hr telephone line, £500 for rubbish removal, although there was no rubbish on the site (it was fly tipped rubbish by another over a fence). The list of charges was plain sillly.

They tried to rewrite the lease so that payments were due, not as per the lease, but as per their schedule.

They wouldn't negotiate just threaten action, so I refused any payment apart from the regular and traditional payments of ground rent and insurance, oh and they couldn't produce evidence of the 1st insurance payment for 2 years.

I stopped communication as there were so many letters that life disappeared just dealing with them. So they would make claim, I would defend , they would drop claim/s when they realised that the claim/ were not inline with the lease agreement.  But then repeat claims for same or similar.

Their in house solicitor knows his stuff better than I and became very technical using tools such as bankruptcy, company wind up orders, approach to lending source direct for payments, so I employed a solicitor. That cost me approx £1,400 but was worth it as the defence was similar in technicalities and they desisted. So I invoiced the defence cost, no surprise they disn't pay so I offset it against the ongoing but realistic leasehold charges. They don't like that so 'part' of these claims is for that, as well as rubbish removal, auditing fees, bankiing costs and more. BTW the lease clearly states I may request an audit, I specifically told them I didn't wish one.

They also like to confuse specifically described payments by allocating to something else so that payments for the undeniable charges look unpaid.

Tha't a simple, sample summary.

 

 

[Richlist]

I've had similar issues but not with Comptons.

My situation was resolved very satisfactorily by my selling the property at a massive profit. I've been moving my portfolio out of leasehold and into freeholds over the last few years. 

[Grampa]

how many units in the block. Is it an option to go down the Right to Manage route?

[Carryon Regardless]

I have considered that.

6 units, I own 4, my company owns 1.

The other is in possession of the anti social git I've written about a few times. It seems (but not sure on the reliability of the info) that his flat has been repossessed and he's waiting for Baliff eviction. For sure he isn't secure there financially and the mortgage provider is moving against him.

If I can be fore warned of any possible auction it might be advantageous, or even approach the lender direct. Not sure how to gain the info though.

I know from LR that there are 2 mortgages, which is acting I don't know. But there are other bodies chasing him as well.

But as far as RTM, as Comptons have an aggressive approach to dealing I feel they would tie me up with requirements, and so other battles, to demonstrate correct management. They would retain a voice at AGM's and use it against me is my guess. Admin fees to assess any management being a feasable weapon at their disposal.

Any thoughts on First Tier Property Tribuanl?

I'm not keen to spend on legal fees if this is a more informal venue.

 

 

[Grampa]

If you haven't looked into it in detail already I do think its worthwhile looking into RTM.

This is one company I spoke to who were very helpful https://www.rtmf.org.uk/

 

 

[Melboy]

What an absolute mess for you COR. With your experiences it just goes to show why any leasehold property these days is just not worth the hassle of it all if a new leaseholder can do what Comptons are doing to you..

[Carryon Regardless]

Apparently there are moves in Parliament tp try and address such bullying. But they're a bit busy nowadays so I don't expect much progress.

When I first informed Comptons of their errors they replied that they have 45,000 leases and so know what they are doing. That means that if they enjoy some success with this strategy it's worth it to them. It also menasthat many naive and frightened peope can have their lives seriously affected by such.

I recognised that they would only gert worse if allowed so chose to be awkward from the off. Like going up against large corporations though they are set up to have advantage here.

As I undrstand shared space residencies like flats will have a freehold situation so that there is a responsible body to manage to whole, or mortgage companies would be reluctant to give credit.