LVT Tribunal -

KennyH1

A resident in our block for flats has taken the management company to tribunal and we were offered the opportunity to join the tribunal, which we did.

There have been several cases of poor management of the building, late issue of service charge demands and even a case of incorrect billing so one person (management company secretary) being billed less that should have been over 5 years (£7500 gain - now paid back).

The problem is that the owner who instigated all of this is challenging every single charge over the last 5 years and when we have had recent meetings & AGM he has become more and more petty and quibbling over the smallest things and wont produce any of his evidence for us to view.

I'm worried that although there are things on the SC that have been done incorrectly and the tribunal should judge in our favour, that the attitude and demeanour of the 1st applicant is going to go against all of us and the tribunal may find that we are liable for some costs due to frivolous or unreasonable actions (i.e. - challenging every single charge rather than ones that are definitely wrong).

Advice please.

cattie

I've never had anything to do with a LVT, but surely there is nothing wrong in wanting to check that all figures charged are correct when such a massive error has been found to have occurred in favour of one particular leaseholder, especially it being the company secretary who was grossly undercharged.

If it were me I think I would be of the same mind that I wanted to double check that no more dodgy dealings had gone on & my service charge monies helping to increase somebody else's bank account.

I'm pretty sure that the tribunal will be perfectly understanding about the fact that intensive queries are now raised regarding the finances of the SC for the past few years.

KennyH1

Yes I understand that if some charges are unreasonable then it is prudent to check all of them but not all are unreasonable.

I'm just wary the closer it gets to the tribunal date that if we lose the case that we will have costs allocated against us as well.

The original owner keeps stating that he has legal council on certain points but will not produce the evidence to us even though we are all challenging the charges together and this makes me nervous.