Legal fees on a county court claim

[eoine]

My landlord is claiming legal fees on a county court claim for service charges and administration charges, which are disputed. His solicitor says that he does not need to issue a demand for legal costs ie he can simply add it to the claim. Is that correct? I thought that a demand and a notice of tenants rights needs to be issued.

[AndrewDod]

The court will deal with costs. So yes, they would not be demanded prior to the county court hearing.

Depends if you are talking about costs relating to these court proceedings, or the cost of them chasing you for outstanding payments for a decade.

[Gordon999]

It up to you to point out the correct procedure to the Court and what has been missed out to make the payment not due until the tenants notice has been served..

[eoine]

They seem to be claiming costs both prior and relating to the court proceedings. The lease only refers to costs in or in contemplation of any proceedings or service of any notice under Sections 146 and 147 of the Law of Property Act 1925. The landlord has not mentioned those Sections.

[Macromia]

Depends if you are talking about costs relating to these court proceedings, or the cost of them chasing you for outstanding payments for a decade.

As Andrew has suggested, it depends what the legal costs are for.
All legal costs that specifically relate to the specific court case can be decided by the court (and do not need to have been demanded in advance or with any statement of rights).

Legal costs relating to attempts to pursue you for payment can be included with the other charges that the case is concerned with and the court will then decide whether or not they should be paid.
If these costs have not previously been demanded as a service charge item they do not need to have been demanded with a statement of rights - but you can try and argue that they should have been demanded that way and let the court decide.

[Macromia]

They seem to be claiming costs both prior and relating to the court proceedings. The lease only refers to costs in or in contemplation of any proceedings or service of any notice under Sections 146 and 147 of the Law of Property Act 1925. The landlord has not mentioned those Sections.

Legal costs do not have to be allowed by the lease unless they are being demanded as a payment under the contractual terms of the lease.

In any court action either party can ask for the court to make a ruling on whether or not to order that one of the parties pays costs (or in some cases the court may decide to make an award without having been asked).
There is no guarantee that any claim for costs will be allowed, and the rules of the court, and the circumstances of the case, will be taken into account in any decision.