Landlord's outrageous redecoration charges

Tom2023

Hi

My wife is the leaseholder of our flat and the housing association is the management company.

We have just received a bill for nearly £800 as our share of repainting the communal stairwell. There are 6 flats in the block so they are charging £4,800 in total for repainting.

Honestly starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm with an hour for lunch I could have repainted it in 2 days.

The 2 guys who did repaint it started in the morning and were gone by school run time. I would have thought £200 a day for a painter was the going rate.

Surely the charges a landlord levies for maintenance have to be reasonable.

Is there an ombudsman for landlords and leaseholders?

Thanks in advance for advice.

MultiFuelBurner

Stairwells are not cheap to paint but if you have proof they were only there for that time you should lodge a complaint about the cost.

eddddy

If your wife has received the bill, and her share of the cost is £800, there should have been a section 20 consultation beforehand.

The consultation should have included...

• Stage 1 - Pre tender-stage - A notice of intention, that describes the work to be done

• Stage 2 - Tender stage - At least 2 estimates for the work

• Stage 3 - Award of Contract

You can still challenge the £800 bill at tribunal on the basis that it's not reasonable (but it's best to pay the bill now under protest - in case your challenge fails).

But assuming a section 20 consultation was done correctly, the tribunal might be a little 'unsympathetic'. They will probably ask why you didn't challenge this earlier in the process, to give your landlord a chance to address your concerns - rather than waiting until the whole process is finished.  



Here's some info on section 20 consultations. The info is slightly different for private sector landlords and public sector landlords. Unfortunately, the decision about whether a Housing Association is public or private is a bit of a grey area.

https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/what-is-the-section-20-consultation-process-for-major-works/
https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/section-20-consultation-private-landlords-resident-management-companies-agents/
https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/section-20-consultation-council-other-public-sector-landlords/

Jonboy_1984

Also be aware with service charges you generally need to pay it under protest and then dispute it in writing (or ultimately at a first tier tribunal). 

Trying to withhold payment doesn’t help and freeholders can apply to any mortgage company involved to get it paid by them and added to the mortgage, or send it over to solicitors which can quickly add four figures to the sum owed.

Grumpy_chap

Tom2023 said:

We have just received a bill for nearly £800 as our share of repainting the communal stairwell. There are 6 flats in the block so they are charging £4,800 in total for repainting.

Honestly starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm with an hour for lunch I could have repainted it in 2 days.

The 2 guys who did repaint it started in the morning and were gone by school run time. I would have thought £200 a day for a painter was the going rate.

Surely the charges a landlord levies for maintenance have to be reasonable.

The charges should be reasonable and, as others have mentioned, should have been consulted on in advance.

The £4.8k presumably includes VAT. 
Presumably includes a management fee applied by the housing association.
Presumably includes "big business" expenses, such as method statements, insurances etc.
Presumably includes access equipment.

If the work really was all completed by two individuals in under one work day, then £4.8k is excessive.

How many floors is the stairwell?
Does the work include painting the associated corridors?
Are there any doors, skirting, windows, window boards, cupboards, handrails, banisters, loft / maintenance access hatches etc that will all have to have been painted or was the work just blank walls?

It's worth understanding how big a job it is. 
"Communal Stairwell" could be a very different thing in different buildings.

For a comparison, I have just obtained a quote to decorate (paint, not paper) our hall, stairs, landing and that has come in at £1,845 + VAT.
It seems entirely plausible that the stairwell and corridors in the block of 6 flats is double my house.

HampshireH

Washing down, prepping, two coats paint, glossing woodwork etc in a communal area (dependant on size) 

How long they took is irrelevant you would have seen the quote in the section 20 consultation. This was the time to challenge it. They may have factored those working hours in for drying time (reasonable). I feel I may have misread your post though as I didn't read it that they took 1 day I read you implied you could have done it in 2 and therefore a shorter space of time than they did.

What did that say it would cost in the notice?

Honestly the price doesn't sound that much.

On the basis you haven't been charged an admin fee (unlikely) then it was £3840 plus VAT split 6 ways (£640 plus vat).

On the basis you were probably charged and admin fee of anywhere between 5-10% it sounds even more reasonable.

RHemmings

If this cost is in any way reasonable, then I'm glad that I'm not looking to live in a leasehold property! Highway robbery. The analyses above seem to suggest it's reasonable because there's a whole queue of people lining their pockets at the leaseholder's expense. Trebles all round. 

dannim12345

Does seem a lot but I don’t know the size of your staircase. If your freeholder/landlord are a big company they may well use a national company rather than a local one which will have a premium. The labour might be £200 per day per person but it will plus materials and mark up.

As long as the painters are getting all the work done to a good standard in the timeframe agreed (and within their quote) then there might not be much for the company to answer too - their quote was accepted. 

More if the correct process was followed and if anyone could have challenged the quote earlier I would say. 

Tom2023

Thanks for all the advice. There was a consultation but I personally do not remember seeing any quotes..

The block of flats is quite modern and their are only 3 floors with no high ceilings.

The housing association involved have previously told me they would only accept bids from companies capable of dong the repainting on all of their estates thus excluding any small local decorators. This has greatly reduced the number of bids and is at the root of the outrageous price.

eddddy

Tom2023 said:

Thanks for all the advice. There was a consultation but I personally do not remember seeing any quotes..

If no quotes were sent to the leaseholder - you should have an easy win at tribunal. And you'll only have to pay £250 towards the work.





But just to be clear...

• Are you saying that no section 20 consultation was done at all?

• Or are you saying a section 20 consultation was done, but you believe that no quotes were sent as part of the consultation?

Obviously, if you want to go to a tribunal, you have to be crystal clear with all the facts.

And if your wife is the leaseholder, all the documents would have been sent to her - by default at the flat's address, unless she gave them a different address in writing. As part of your investigations, you could ask other leaseholders if they failed to receive quotes as well.

bouicca21

That’s not far off from what we paid for redecoration of the stairwell (also 3 stories) in our block.  Ours was more because there was some external redecoration too.  All the quotes following the section 20 were from small local firms and they were all very similar.  The cost of any kind of building work has soared over the past few years.  We (the lessees) had the opportunity to suggest another contractor but we couldn’t find anyone cheaper.  We did think about offering to do it ourselves but tbh we were glad to get it done.