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Not received any Syndic invoices but still asking to pay penalty
Hello,
After buying an apartment in brussels, the syndic of my building used to send me quarterly invoices for 2-3 quarters. But after that they suddenly stopped sending me for a year or so. Now their lawyer has sent me an official invoice with penalty at my correct address. The syndic now says that there was a mistake in the address and they used to send at my old address which I didn't received.
Now he is asking me to pay charges + penalty. I don't want to pay the penalty as its not my fault.
But he says that as an owner you should be responsible for all the invoices and if I didn't received any, I should have contacted them. I don't agree to this.
Whose fault is this? Mine or the syndic?
Thanks!
Hi Apt, if you were getting bills and they stopped didn't it seem a little odd? If you are due to pay the syndicate for a service and they did it and you don't pay, then as far I see it's you at fault.
They did their part acted on your behalf and you failed to pay them the fee. You have no proof you didn't get the bills.
You say they had an old address did these stop when you moved? This lawyer also needs to get his fee for contacting you.
I'm sorry to say I think the lawyer maybe be correct however maybe you could suggest they as a gesture of good will drop some of the charges.
As you say they made a mistake in your address. I wonder have you written to them or just him?
I guess in future you will make sure you pay them even if they fail to bill you
Seems pretty standard in Belgium to bill people for not paying bills they never received. Not just the cost of reminders but "GOTCHA!" fees to make a profit on the failure of them to deliver the bill.
You know, the 7.50 for failing to pay the first bill followed by the 15 for failing to pay the second?
That said, you must surely share some blame of you realised the bills you were expecting quarterly did not appear for a year. I suspect you will find that the contract you signed will make you completely liable even if they never sent out the bills at all.
Of course it's the syndic's fault; they are the ones who send the invoices to the wrong address.
But if this goes as far as the court, there will surely be the question raised about why you did not realize that anything was wrong? You would be in a better position if you had actually not received any invoices at all since you moved in; then you could just about argue that you were not even aware that such invoices were supposed to arrive.
But you had already received three quarterly invoices and presumably paid them. How likely is it that you genuinely believed that there suddenly were no more Syndic charges to pay at all, and this for an entire year?
The court will very likely state that since you must have known that such invoices are supposed to arrive every quarter, your failure to react was negligence on your part.
I think the question of 'fault' is irrelevant.
If you suddenly stop getting invoices for gas, electric, phone, whatever would you take the initiative to find out why or wait until your supply was cut off?
In your situation I would ask if they would accept a lower penalty as they accept that they had the wrong address though they have every right to insist on payment in full.
When you were a tenant you were informed of the syndic charges when your landlord chose to inform you.
It's different when you are the owner of the apartment. But I don't understand; in your first message you say "After buying an apartment in brussels, the syndic of my building used to send me quarterly invoices for 2-3 quarters".
So did you receive quarterly invoices (2 or 3 of them) or not?
Pleeeaaasssseee. You suddenly stopped getting invoices and it never occured to you to ask why or wonder where they might be? No excuse. You knew you owed the money. You have to know that not paying bills ends up with penalties added to original amount. Don't waste more money on a lawyer--you will not win this. You MIGHT be able to argue a lower penalty but kind of doubtful. Ignorance is no excuse!
It could also be said that the syndic had no excuse for sending the bills to the wrong address and not chasing up the matter when the first one was not paid.
Wow that's is a lot to be fined!
Have you contacted the syndi?
Will they pay any of this as a gesture of good will?
What address did they have?
Surely the bills would have been returned if they went to a different address. I think the fact that you say you've had irratic bills before might be a partial excuse howver if the fine is 800 you must have missed a lot. If they sent three in a row and then nothing I think I might have thought gosh where is that bill?
