Property Management Contract

[Bumblebee1612]

My daughter is a joint freeholder of three flats. There is one other freeholder. The long Leaseholder (not a freeholder) of the third flat has caused many problems in the past, and it became necessary to appoint a Property Managing Agent.

After 5 months, the MD of the company wrote to the Freeholders saying that the company would no longer manage the property, and citing the actions of the third Leaseholder as the reason for the termination of the contract. As this is not in accordance with the contract, resignation was not accepted. The contract term was for one year, and there is no option to end the contract early. Eventually, the MD has accepted that he must continue until the end of the term.

My daughter would like reassurance that her rights to forfeiture of the lease have not been waived by the Managing Agent’s actions. Therefore, she has requested to inspect and copy all documents held by the Managing Agent. Additionally, she wants to know exactly what has been communicated between the Managing Agent and the Leaseholder.

There is a clause in the contract to do this:

“The Agent shall promptly, upon request by the Client, allow the Client to inspect at its offices, and at the Client’s expense, copy any accounts and documents in the possession of the Agent relating to the Property.”

My daughter gave one week’s notice to attend the offices for this purpose.
However, the response was that this would not be possible, and the documents can be seen at the next quarterly meeting, which is due at the end of September. When the timing of this was questioned, the response came back to say that the documents could be inspected sooner, but at the cost of £100 + vat per hour of each member of staff’s time who would be involved in this meeting.

There is a section in the contract that any additional meetings will be charged for, but the clause for inspection of documents is in a separate clause.

Is this a reasonable response by the Managing Agent?

[bednobs]

it seems a reasonable response to me. however, the amount does not seem reasonable. I would imagine all it would need would be some junior person. She should ask them to prove their rates!

[bednobs]

also, I wonder if it's just been a misunderstanding? She doesn't want a meeting, she simply wants to look at documents

[Bumblebee1612]

She has quoted the clause twice now, stating that she wishes to view and copy the documents. She has pointed out that she is not requesting a meeting and that the charges for extra meetings are contained in a separate clause of the contract.

When a Leaseholder makes a similar request to a Landlord, there are not allowed to be any charges made for the service. If the accounts are held by an accountant, or in a business location, reasonable charges can applied for the copies.

[Peter Pedant]

nightmare - hop e yhour daughter resolves this

[Peter Pedant]

from what she says
it is an inspection and not a meeting
and clearly the cost is mentioned - only of copying...

and the meeting is mentioned elsewhere and it is reasonable to conclude this is a different thing - in fact a meeting and not an inspection. - if the inspection were included in a meeting then this would have been stated ...

[Peter Pedant]

[call a thing, a thing and not another thing, Bishop Butler but still applies]

[Bumblebee1612]

My daughter has asked the Property Redress Scheme for their help to resolve this. The PRS have formally accepted the complaint, so will expect the Managing Agent to comply, or else the PRS will refer the matter to RICS.

[Bumblebee1612]

The PRS could not authorise getting the documents because “Leaseholders” are not entitled to see the ones requested, and they do not act on behalf of Freeholders!!