More Stealth Charges Imposed By Solitaire
By admin | October 14th, 2009 | Category: Past Articles | 24 commentsDid you know, that if you are looking to remortgage your property that Solitaire will charge you at least £70+vat for the privilege of supplying the information to your Mortgage Company.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that, most people will look to change their mortgage provider when their current ‘deal’ comes to an end – usually every two years. A very, very nice money spinner from Solitaire’s point of view.
In addition to this, Solitaire charge an ‘Administration Fee’ for issuing the Certificate of Compliance for Land Registry which is at least another £50+vat – a charge that Solitaire deem as being a fair amount!
These charges are incurred when the landowners are Estate & Management, acting on behalf of Holdings & Management (Solitaire) Ltd (another Consensus Business Group company)
Therefore, this is yet another ‘stealth’ charge where Solitaire / Peverel are making money out of us. I would also imagine that at the point of selling your properties, you’ll have to pay a fee to them!
What’s worse, you have no other choice but to pay for the above, because quoting MM of Solitaire Group:
This means that NO transfer, Mortgage or Charge on your property can be registered unless requirements have been met.
In summary, they get money out of residents every single way they can and as another contributor said, although we own the bricks and mortar of our properties, Solitaire won’t let you do anything without their permission – so in theory, they actually own our homes and we pay a shed load of cash for the ‘privilege’ of saying its ours!
I feel that this is totally unacceptable and goes to show that they are taking advantage of all of us and reaffirms our views that they are only interested in making money.
Interesting: I re-mortgaged my flat four years ago, and I didn’t pay Solitaire anything. The freeholder of my development is Estates & Management, although if memory serves (don’t have the paperwork to hand at the moment), they weren’t at the time I re-mortgaged – it was Solitaire themselves (although it’s all the same thing, ultimately…). Perhaps this is why I didn’t pay anything 4 years ago…???
Bearing in mind the fun & games you can have when trying to get information out of Solitaire when you buy / sell a leasehold property they have any involvement with, for them to then charge such extortionate fees on top is taking the you-know-what…..
As and when I move – if I look to buy another leasehold property – I will be double-checking who owns the freehold & who the managing agents are. If any connection with Consensus Group can be found, I think I’ll be looking again…..
A while ago I tried to create an official petition that calls for more government regulation in the leasehold management/service charge industry so that companies like Peverel/Solitaire/County Estate Management can be held accountable for poor service, shoddy workmanship and overcharging etc.
Well, Number 10 have now deemed it a valid petition, and if 500 or more people sign it, it gets looked into by the powers that be.
If interested, you can sign it here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/flatownerhelp/
Thanks,
Darren
Good work Darren. I’ve signed… Another 498 needed…!!!
Admin – can you provide a separate link / article on this, so that it doesn’t get missed by other readers…???
Excellent – I’ve just signed up!
Excellent – I’ve just signed up!
Cheers guys. I’ve sent it round to all the residents in my block (we’ve all had a nightmare with a certain company!). That should get a hundred more or so… the biggest petition on there is one asking Gordon Brown to resign, with 70,000 or so signatures. I aim to beat it and go to the top! We;ve been ripped off for long enough!
Please pass the link to anyone who you feel it may affect.
Thanks!
Superb! Another signature for the list… 495 to go!
Just e-mailed it to all of the residents within our development too, so hopefully a few more signatures will be added.
Well done Darren
Another signature will be added
I will inform the other residents here, trouble is many I know do not have a PC
What do they do?
You do need an active email account in order to sign a 10 Downing Street petition – having added your details on the website, they then send you an email with a link that you have to click to actually “sign” the petition.
For those that haven’t got their own email account, perhaps they can use somebody else’s email address & PC (obviously having asked permission first)…??? If the Downing Street website won’t allow multiple signatures from the same email address, then just create a new Hotmail account for the purpose.
Don’t let not having email / internet access be an excuse for not signing the petition. In today’s high-tech world, it’s a problem that can be easily overcome…!!!
I have just been sent a letter demanding between 180 and 330 pounds to obtain consent from Solitaire for me to let my flat. I understand that no one else charges to obtain consent, and suspect this is a new “stealth” solitaire charge.
Bernie – so you have been quoted between £180 and £330, and not a precise, set sum?? Is there an explanation as to why it is a range of figures, and not a precise sum…??? If they can’t tell you the exact amount, how are you supposed to pay it?
It’s not a “new” stealth charge – there’s been previous cases reported on this website, but not for so much. £75 has been mentioned before by others, if I remember correctly…???
Is there anything in your lease that states such a charge applies if you let your property out? If not, then ignore it.
Has anybody else who has encountered this charge ever looked into the legality of it? Or has anybody ignored it, only to then have had problems down the line with demands for payment…??? I’d be interested to know (as would Bernie, I’d guess…) for future reference.
they charge a fee for letting you rent the property and a fee every time the tenant changes or you can pay a higher global fee to cover all tenants. Its daylight robbery and they do nothing for the money. I had my lawyer get confirmation from them that I could let before i bought the property and have no intention of ever paying them if my tenant changes.
Joy of joys, I have just got my mortgage approval from the bank to switch lenders, today I got my statement from my solicitors for the fees I need to pay etc. and surprise surprise there is a charge of £152.75 for a “Notice of Mortgage” and certificate of compliance from OM Management.
I cannot believe this is even possible, I need to go back and double check my lease to see if it has anything about it on there, I cannot begin to describe how I feel about this. What right does a company have to charge me for something that is completely un-necessary! What concern is it to them which mortgage I take, as long as I pay it and them! Shocking.
Did anyone manage to find out if this is even legal? As others have stated it is like OM/Peverel have more say in what goes on with my own property than I do! As this is my first ever property I am finding all of these things such a shock and a real lesson.
I changed my mortgage provider 5 years ago. Admittedly I didn’t advise Solitaire what I was doing (never thought about telling them, to be honest), and therefore I didn’t pay them a penny.
As “Bushbrother” states, what concern is it of theirs anyway who we arrange our own mortgages with…??? It’s no skin off the management company’s nose whether we pay our mortgages each month, or not. If we don’t, it’s our problem, not theirs. They don’t need to know who we use for our own contents insurance, or who we get our gas & electric from, so why should we have to advise them of a change of mortgage lender…???
Anyway, I didn’t – couldn’t tell you if my lease requires me to do so (and I’m not going to waste my time looking), but even if it does I switched lenders 5 years ago, so they can go whistle….. They have enough off me and do s0d-all in return as it is.
I have managed a block for 3 years as a management Company but also own the flat in teh block and was Company Secretary for the Association.
We never knew who got mortgage with whom. Only time the Management Company can use the Mortgage lender is to demand unpaid service charge. Unusually Mortgage lender will pay it. The Mortgage Lender interests are listed in the insurance policy for the building.
We all know what is behind these charges so either we put up with it or actually take action.
Sorry, folks just moaning is not taking us anywhere, is It!!!!!!!!!
I called OM to see what they had to say about it, they have informed me that because Peverel have an interest in the property, as in if I don’t keep up with my mortgage payments and get re-possessed, then they need to make sure someone pays up their fees.
As such they need to be informed of the current lender and “authorise” the lender to make a “change in charge”? or something along those lines (they say its in lease). They therefore charge £80 odd for the privilege of sending an approval, and then a £50 odd charge if any approvals are needed on the changes in the land registry.
They mentioned that there is some requirement or check on the land registry for this. Could this be E&M putting a block on any changes to land they own just so that Peverel can then charge to “file and administer” the change?
To me it all smells very bad, but not sure what choice I have! Maybe I shouldn’t have put their name on the application form, again, another beginners error as this is my first mortgage lender change! But why should I have to omit details on an application because of a greedy company charging to send letters! Sc**w you OM!
Just to add, I am happy to take action, but when calling OM and stating my frustration, they don’t seem bothered and state that its what their legal department have deemed a “fair amount to charge”.
I told them I would be contacting the FSA to see about that, they just shrugged it off and even gave me the phone number to call them!
Any other suggestions?
I could make “other suggestions”, but Admin would remove them quickly, and I’d probably get a visit from the local constabulary…..
Message to “Andy” – how long before CL and/or DG get back to me…?? Or even MP, if he’s back at work? Just what exactly are they “discussing”…??? In the meantime, there’s no sign of any of the various maintenance issues here being sorted out. No surprise there, then…..
The Management Company and Landlords are firstly approached to provide info for the property sale. That applies for repossessed properties too. At that time the fees are claimed prior to sending any documents they require and one asks for undertaking that they will pay the full amount due out of the sale proceeds including interest. The interest is always higher then bank of England rate so it is a good way to make money. See the link blew as I prepared info pack from the landlord and Management Company for my flat sale.
http://flatforsaletender.co.uk/
It is simply toll money to collect and nothing else.
Only way one can fight if the law of the land does not apply is too find week points and then go for it. One need to be prepared to risk ones life to bring changes. I sense the change is on the way as we do have good resistance fighting the occupation.
Other way is too find a weak point then jointly go for it.
I advise that anyone who has been charged by Solitaire/Peverel checks that if they have any charges removed that they are then not ‘lost’ in developments yearly charges.
For example:
A charge has been put on your account.
You disagree
Solitaire / Peverel agree to remove charge because mistake is made by themselves.
Charge is removed from your account
BUT then Solitaire/Peverel puts the charge in the developments fund, so in the end the development picks up the mistake that Solitaire/ Peverel has made.
Andy please ask your boss to ask his boss if this happens.
Another thing, are there any fees that pass between Solitaire/ Peverel with regards to passing work to each other?
All,
Admin, is it with having a dedicated FEE’s page? What they add fees for or take fees for?
Or
Andy why do you not publish all of the Fee’s associated in your business, a bit of transparency.
I am just in the process of remortgaging my property and received notice that I need to pay e&m:-
£95 admin fee
£115 for issuing a certificate of compliance
I am absolutely shocked about the amount being charged and started digging around the web to see what information I could find, so it has been great to find this website.
I am in process of complaining to e&m and will raise it also with the Ombudsman Services to see if I get anywhere.
@Giles – Good luck (…but don’t hold your breath!) Also welcome to the site and prepare to be enlightened with the TRUTH!