Council Service Charges for Leaseholders

waynewhu

Has anyone done any work on Council Service Charges for leaseholders. They are the biggest bugbear for both the Leaseholders and my local Council - I'm betting they cause a lot of problems country wide.

Basically they are seen as unjust, unfair and extortionate - the Council never gives full details of how it charges these charges, and use arcane and ancient formulii to do so. We also don't get the service we pay for - Block cleaning, estate maintanence etc is non existent etc.

This is a big issue in my area and a massive vote winner - a lot of Councillors here are jumping on the band waggon to help leaseholders get some kind of equity as it is a topic that will win local elections here.

I was wondering if the laws and principles that apply to Banks etc i.e. : any charges organisations levy on their customers must be proportional to the actual costs they incur works in the same way for admin fees and estate management fees for Local Housing Offices?

In addition the Council is striking individual deals with people (like me) who complain and appeal so much so that my service charges have been reduced by 25%/30% compared to my neighbour who doesn't complain and just pays up. Needless to say the Council don't make these deals public knowledge and it is hugely unjust and undemocratic - they just take the money who are frighteend by their red reminders - mainly pensioners who are confused and just pay the bills out of habit.

Any information etc would be very welcome.

Best regards

Astaroth

The "banks" laws/ principles you talk about is contract law which states that for a breach of contract (eg going over your credit limit) you can only recover your true cost of the breach and not punitive damages. Unless you are talking about additional charges for breaching your contract with the council the same would not apply - for charges within a contract for performing services there is no restriction under general law (otherwise no company would ever be able to make a profit).

As you are talking about councils then I am sure there are additional laws governing the fees they charge but this is way outside my knowledge.