I have a lease hold apartment in the UK that I have been renting for a number of years. All of a sudden the company that owns the ground lease has requested £75 + VAT for any tenant that moves in for administration charges. (because they suspect someone else may be living there)

I find this an absolute rip off, and have ignored it until now.

What could be the ramifications if I continue to ignore?

Hi

Not sure about this but you could try reading your lease agreement, it should have some information about the agents ability to charge. See a solicator if unsure otherwise they may be able to go for Forfeiture of your lease! Not nice!!
Good luck!

I own a flat in Peterborough and exactly the same thing has happened to me (I've been using the 'ignore them' technique too but I've started getting reminder letters from them).

I understand when you purchase a leasehold property you really need to get written permission from the leaseholder before you rent the property. Some how I had convinced myself I had done this but I can't find any trace of it in my paperwork (I suspect my memory is playing tricks on me and I'm only remembering that I intended to do this...). As an aside I'd be very interested to know how many landlords actually remember to get permission from the freeholder!?

Mind you, even if I had written permission at some stage I guess this does not prevent freeholders from turning round and trying to sting you with random extra charges like this. My freeholder seems to want every tenant to sign an extra agreement with them (which presumably says that they will comply with the terms in the lease) and their "admin charge" is supposed to cover this. I had been getting tenants to sign copies of the lease anyway which I thought would cover it.

At the moment I'm not sure what to do about this and I have no idea what the freeholder will do if I continue to ignore them.

I had this same problem in a block in Manchester.
company called SIMARC acting for the freeholder.
I was charged £85+vat.
The lease has wording that says "reasonable charges" which covers this.
They can do this but it willl depend on the wording of your lease.
It is basically a tidying up exercise by the freeholder to get an idea of who is in their properties- it is not a charge for granting consent to sublet but they are entitled to ask for the details of the tenancy if you are subletting- and they can charge a reasonable admin charge.
I know it is a rip off but you are in breach of lease if you don't pay- only way around it is to say that charges aren' reasonable and have LVT assess it- which of course is going to cost you more in time and expenses than £75!

My mistake was that i inadvertently admitted it was sublet in some earlier correpsondence - if they don't know you have sublet then just keep quiet and they may just give up

You can speak for free to specialist lawyers at leaseholder service - very helpful

http: / /www .lease -advice .org /livingframe .htm

Thanks all..

At present they are stating in their letter "may have been let". They do not really appear to know if it has. I am tempted to keep quiet. They have been sending letters for some time now..

I do not want to gamble if this can affect my credit rating.

Do you think they would go to the trouble of creating a CCJ or anything else against me for this?