Claiming underpaid service charge from deceased leaseholder's estate

[jazzfestival]

Apologies ,me again asking for advice and contributing nothing .

I'm pretty sure this comes into the flogging dead horse category but ...

3 leaseholders ,2 flats,1 maisonette ,one management company ,2 directors

director/leaseholder of maisonette dies ,MC paperwork eventually passed to new leaseholder .
MC bank accounts show that maisonette has only ever paid 25% of service charges and not the 50% required by lease .

Would MC be within their rights to make a claim against the estate for some of the outstanding service charge ?

[pochisoldi]

Have a read of https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-gui ... er-issues/
paying attention to section 3.1 (regarding the required format, and also the 18 month limit).

That covers the "normal" situtation, but from what you've described it appears that the director (or directors) of the management company have decided to ignore the terms of the lease, and allow a 50% discount on the

However from what you've said, it appears that the director has allowed themselves a waiver on their service charges.
Any director doing this would be acting "ultra vires". The management company hold the service charge monies on trust for the leaseholders.
Waiving service charges for one leaseholder would be a breach of trust. Any director who knew or allowed this to happen could be personally liable (in their capacity as a director) for any loss to the service charge fund.

My advice would be to examine the service charge accounts closely, and take legal advice*, taking in the following:

(1) How much money has the leaseholder failed to pay into the service charge account. (How much is missing?)
(2) How can the management company protect it's interests (e.g. can they refuse permission to assign the lease until the debt is cleared, and/or should they register a notice or a restriction at the Land Registry)
(3) How can the management company collect the monies due?
(4) Once paid, can the management company refund over paid service charges to the other leaseholders?

(* Note that the legal advice should be sought by the management company and initially paid for out of the service charge fund as a management expense)

The remaining director is also in the hole for the missing money - if they had knowledge and permitted the other director to take a discount, so they should either get on board or resign (once replacement directors are in place).

If the remaining director is unwilling to take action, then you might also want to consider talking to the other shareholders of the management company and find out how to convene a general meeting, and possibly have one or two of your number elected as directors to take control of what appears to be a rudderless ship.

PochiSoldi

[jazzfestival]

Thank you ,that's helpful .

I'm aware that there are requirements about issuing the correct request for service charges and time limits . Although in this case payment was made ,but at the wrong rate .If that makes sense .

I think legal advice will be required as you suggest .Helpful to have the issues highlighted ,thanks again .