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dodee · Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 2

All tenants in the private apartments where we live have today received the following letter from the management company:

"Please find enclosed a copy of the Accounts for the financial year 1 October 2003 to 30 September 2004. As you can see the management company has made a loss. Owners will appreciate this is a non-profit/loss company and the losses cannot be accepted.

In order to recover the loss as at 30 September 2004, this is shown on your demand as an adjustment of services for the period 01.10.03 - 30.09.04. We have also increased the service charge for 01.04.04 to fall in line with the total amount of expenditure incurred up to 30.09.04, which was £40213.00.

Due to the demands already being raised from October 04 to March 05 we have raised an ad-hoc charge to cover the amount under demanded, which is shown on your demands as service charge increase for the period 01.10.04 - 31.03.05.

Your new periodic six monthly charges have therefore increased from £329.47 to £436.31.

If you pay by standing order then please contact your bank and increase the current amount you pay to £72.72 a month to commence from June 2005. We would be grateful to receive a one off payment via cheque for the amount of £354.89 to bring your account up to date. Please make cheques payable to xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding this matter, or would like to make a payment arrangement to clear the balance incurred due to the increase, please do not hesitate to contact us."

End

A brief breakdown for year end 30 September 2004:

Light and heat £1,032.00
Insurance £15,151.00
Repairs and Maintenance £8,929.00
Caretakers Expenses Recharged £1,633.00
Garden Maintenance £1,676.00
Cleaning and Window Cleaning £3,906.00
Administration Charges £6,860.00
Legal and Professional Fees £39.00
Accountancy Fees £987.00

They are effectively asking for a 40% increase on monthly service charge, we fully understand a reasonable increase would be expected but this!! Can they demand retrospective charges? There are issues with the service they provide, what kind of letter should we write in response, what questions do we need to ask? Can we request a more comprehensive breakdown?

tia

Dave