Unreasonable surveyor fee's ?

GregDixon

Hello MSE's.
Myself and 3 neighbours are currently working our way through a Section 42 Lease Extension.
We are at the stage where we're close to agreeing a final price with the leaseholders, however, we're slightly shocked by the fee's involved.
We hired a surveyor to work on our behalf who has charged us 220 pounds +VAT each. As per the terms of the lease extension we are expected to pay the reasonable costs of the leaseholders surveyor too. We have no say in who the leaseholder appoints.
The leaseholders surveyor has billed us for £700 + VAT each.
This is over 3 times what our surveyor charged. And additionally to this the surveyor spent a maximum of 6 minutes in total assessing our flats. The flats are all identical, were viewed on the same day, and as I say, he spent a maximum of 2 minutes in my flat, and only 30 seconds in my neighbours flat. As I say, the whole process of the 4 was completed in 6 minutes.
Is it right and fair and 'reasonable' for him to be able to charge us 700 pounds + VAT Each for this service?
Do we have any right of appeal ?
Many thanks for your informed thoughts.

G_M

Who are the leaseholders? Who are you? What is the relationship? Why do you need to pay their surveyors fees? Whose lease do you want to extend?

None of this makes much sense!

Fire_Fox

As you say you must pay the freeholder's reasonable costs, if you are all extending the lease simultaneously and had one brief site visit it doesn't seem to me to be reasonable to charge each flat quite so much. Read the advice guides here, you might also search the LVT decisions http://www.lease-advice.org/publications/

Normally you can challenge any charges that are not reasonable at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal, generally you would pay first, however this may not be the best course of action here. IMO all individually write to the freeholder expressing concerns over the magnitude, the time taken and the economies of scale given that there was just one site visit and one lot of background research to do. Ask your solicitors or the LEASE telephone advice line whether you should pay the charge under protest/ reserve the right to challenge at an LVT. Be sure you are using a solicitor who specialises in leasehold extensions and disputes.

teneighty

Have you asked the surveyor for a breakdown of his fee?

I assume they have done it on a time charge basis, so maybe 14 hours at £150 per hour? Your surveyor should be able to confirm whether that is "reasonable".

GregDixon

G_M wrote: »

Who are the leaseholders? Who are you? What is the relationship? Why do you need to pay their surveyors fees? Whose lease do you want to extend?

None of this makes much sense!

Who are the leaseholders?
The leaseholders are the holders of the lease for the block of flats that we live in and wish to extend the lease for.

Who are you?
I am the lessee wishing to extend the lease on the flat I own.

What is the relationship?
The relationship is customer and client based.

Why do you need to pay their surveyors fees?
I need to pay their surveyor's fee's because the law stipulates I have to pay reasonable costs for the section 42 notice.

Whose lease do you wish to extend?
Mine obviously..


Thank you to teneighty and fire fox who were able to make some sense of this. I will follow your advice and be contacting the surveyor and LEASE service.