I've been using this site for help in taking a property

Hello and thank you for your question. My name is ***** ***** I will be very pleased to assist you. I'm a practising lawyer in England with over 15 years’ experience. Please be aware that although I will endeavour to reply to you promptly, I am also in full time private practice and so I may not be available to respond immediately and it may also take me a few minutes to prepare a reply. The site will notify you as soon as I respond. I look forward to working with you to answer your question fully.

1. May I confirm what you are actually claiming or seeking an order for precisely please? from a brief review of quality of your previous questions, it appears that you are disputing at least some of the service charges that have been raised against you. Is that correct?
2. Have you only issued proceedings against the managing agent to date?

Thank you. May I ask why you elected to issue in the county court rather than make an application to the first tier property tribunal?

But here you are seeking to determine your liability for service charge payments are you not rather than seeking to specifically hold the landlord in breach of a lease term in and of itself?

thank you. Fundamentally, it seems to me that the claim may be better suited to the first tier property tribunal by way of an application to determine your liability to pay one or more charges that you dispute under the commonhold and leasehold reform act.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-leasehold-1-application-for-a-determination-as-to-liability-to-pay-an-administration-charge-or-for-the-variation-of-a-fixed-administration-charg

I've course do not suggest that the County Court can also deal with such a claim and as you suggest, there are imitations to a property tribunal claim-for example you would not be able to claim indemnity for legal costs and the like as the tribunal's authority is limited to determining service charges that have been made and therefore I certainly do not suggest your approach is wrong but I of the above simply for consideration.

In terms of the substantive question you ask, the managing agent is acting as agent for the freeholder and as such, providing the agent has disclosed the identity of its principal (the freeholder) which I am certain it has done and in any event is likely already known to you, then under agency law, your claim is properly as against the freeholder and not the agent.

If a hearing is not yet been held to determine your claim, then you may wish to give consideration to making an application to amend defendant t the claim under part 19 of the civil procedure rules:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n244-application-notice

If you decide to proceed with the above application to change parties to the claim, then you would need to serve a copy of the application on the freeholder and agent. There is no need to repeat the process of a letter before action because be zoomable you have already been corresponding with the agent in this regard and what you send to the agent can be deemed as having been sent to the freeholder as they act as agent for the freeholder

Sadly, owing to work commitments this afternoon I'm not able to call but your call request is open to colleagues. I am happy to clarify any remaining queries you have on the above here in chat though.

an application to change parties cannot be made online I regret. it needs to be made using the above N244 form which is sent in triplicate to the court that is dealing with the claim. This may either be the Northampton County Court where would have been issued or it may have  already been transferred to a local court in which case it would be that court you would apply to.

that is an alternative but you will be unlikely to recover the court fee paid if you do this. you may wish to therefore consider this against the court fee payable in respect of the above application which is £275 unless you obtain the consent of the parties in which case if is £108.

If you decide to proceed with an application using form N244 to change the parties you do not need to send a letter before action.

That is correct. as above, if you decide to proceed with the N244 application, it is necessary to serve a copy of the claim form both on the agent and freeholder (this is re-serving the claim).

you can find the relevant practice direction on the process at the following link:

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part19/pd_part19a

I hope the above is of some assistance but if you have any further questions, please revert to me.

I trust the above was of assistance and that you do not have any follow up questions for now. If there is anything else I can help with please reply back to me though.

thank you. I hope customer services have been able to assist you with a refund. They are normally fairly quick to respond.

In terms of the approach proposed, if you find this to be the simpler one, as we discussed above, that is certainly an alternative.

I'm glad the above is of some assistance