Owning your own home

Here's a question which has just occurred to me - what if they refuse to take me to court, but simply keep insisting that I owe them money? Is there a mechanism to force them to take me to court?

I've got no idea how to take the firm of solicitors to a tribunal as Bleak References suggests, and would rather the solicitor has to initiate the action as (I am hoping here) if I win I only have to pay my own costs, and I can't see (currently) how they could win.

You don't take the solicitors to court. You apply to the first tier property tribunal (leasehold) for a determination as to whether or not the costs in question are payable.

If they are, you've lost nothing but the application fee, plus a bit of pride when you have to pay it.

If they're not, which seems more likely, you're in the clear for these costs, you've shown your freeholder / managing agent that you understand how the game is played and you won't be fucked with, and you may be able to claim your costs back, which is always a poke in the eye to those guys.

The other alternative is gambling that they won't have the time or inclination to take YOU to first tier tribunal to prove the opposite (i.e. that it is payable). But if you wait for them to do it, and they elect to go down this route, it is stressful. That first letter telling you you might have your flat forefeited is a shocking thing. The addition of £600 in legals each time they send you a letter adds to the stress.

A guy in our block was recently taken to first tier tribunal for costs of £22k, much of which were the freeholders' spiralling legal costs over a debt which the leaseholder had already paid. Obviously unjust. Obviously a scandal. But completely normal within the world of leasehold. Here's the story: https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/israel-moskovitz-demand-for-22170-admin-charges-reduced-to-300-in-colossal-waste-of-courts-time/

Our leaseholder managed to get those £22k's worth of charges reduced down to £300 - about which he's not happy, but I'd still personally chalk that up to a win. However, I'm not in his position. That win cost him three years of his life defending this and wondering whether or not he'd need to sell his flat to pay these bogus charges. Sure, there was only a 1% chance of that happening. But that 1% is like a bit of grit in your shoe - it might not look like much, but when you're on a 20 mile hike, it can make your life a misery until the fucking thing is out of there.

My advice is, get out in front of it. You can be blase in leasehold and most of the time there'll be no impact, but if your freeholder is aggressive or unethical, you may be about to enter a world of frustration, aggravation, and pain.