Council fees for leaseholders

scouseling

I am a leaseholder with a London council. They recently charged me £450 legal fees as well as the £120 planning permission fee before allowing me to install double glazing in my flat. The £450, they claimed, was for changing my lease. Are there any laws ensuring that property freeholders/ local authorities can only charge fair fees to cover their costs, along the same lines as banks and financial institutions r.e. overdrafts/ mortgage exit fees etc? Thank you!

cattie

£450 legal fees for changing a lease is a reasonable charge I'd have thought.

Solicitors don't come cheap as you no doubt know & I know the one I'm dealing with for my house sale states there will be a charge of £130 hour + vat should any additional work other than what is standard & included in the sale fee be required.

There is a lot of work involved in amending a lease & if it isn't done properly you could run into trouble when the time comes to sell the property.

The planning permission fee will be a standard fee applicable to anybody who needs planning permission to make alterations to a building.

If you feel the legal fee was extortionate you could try asking the law society for advice.

pboae

My experience was that they could charge pretty much anything they liked, but I suggest you contact http://www.lease-advice.org/ Lease and ask them, they will give advice over the phone.