Issuing a Section 20 Notice

tomp2494

I am director/shareholder/leaseholder of a small company which owns the freehold to my and 2 other flats in the same block. 

Work is required to fix wear and tear on the roof. One of the leaseholders, also a director, has objected to my brothers carpentry and construction firm to undertake repairs because they "are not qualified" and are "not roofers" and because "conflict of interest" (The conflict of interest has been declared, both myself and my brothers firm only had the interests of the company/ the roof at heart! and deal with many roofs / is certainly "qualified" to make the repairs) 

So we can't use my brothers firm. Fine. 

As this director seemingly wants to do everything by the book, so will I. 

I am going to issue a section 20 notice and get new quotes. (I no longer trust they will pay up if we don't go with the contractor of their choice, so the only way to enforce payment is a s20!) 

There are a few issues though that I'd like advice on please:

1. This director is currently living abroad. Their registered address is currently her empty flat in the UK. Does the s20 have to be delivered via recorded delivery - or can it be e-mailed to them?
2. Can they respond in writing via e-mail? 
3. The director is insisting company e-mails are automatically forwarded to her personal e-mail address so she can view quotes/other company e-mails, because she claims not to have access. (it's a yahoo account, to which we all have been given the e-mail login and password. She replies to e-mails sent to her using the company account - via her own yahoo account! So myself and the other director do not agree to setting up forwarding as she can login / has not provided a good explanation as to why she cannot login.)

4. The lease does not state who pays what. Only words to the effect of service charges/charges must be paid on demand. We have a verbal agreement between us over who pays what. There is no mention of s20 notices in the lease. 
Since we/the company has taken over the freehold, there is no service charge as such. We pay our percentages as and when required for work. 

Thank you for any advice. 

eddddy

tomp2494 said:

1. This director is currently living abroad. Their registered address is currently her empty flat in the UK. Does the s20 have to be delivered via recorded delivery - or can it be e-mailed to them?
2. Can they respond in writing via e-mail? 
3. The director is insisting company e-mails are automatically forwarded to her personal e-mail address so she can view quotes/other company e-mails, because she claims not to have access. (it's a yahoo account, to which we all have been given the e-mail login and password. She replies to e-mails sent to her using the company account - via her own yahoo account! So myself and the other director do not agree to setting up forwarding as she can login / has not provided a good explanation as to why she cannot login.)

Are you saying the set-up is as follows:

• 3 people are directors of company that owns a freehold building
• The freehold building contains just 3 leasehold flats
• The same 3 people each own a leasehold flat

If so, it seems like madness to have to do a section 20 consultation. Why not just get 3 quotes, and informally decide which one to go with?





But if you really want to go through with a section 20 consultation...

First, you need to make a distinction - the person you are talking about has 2 roles:

• 1) A director of a company that owns a freehold building
• 2) A leaseholder who owns a leasehold flat

The 3 company directors are free to communicate with each other in whatever way they choose

But the freehold company must be careful about how it serves formal notices on the 3 leaseholders. 

There's been lots of 'arguments' in court about where/how notices should be served, but the consensus seems to be that you should serve notices to the leasehold flat address, unless the leaseholder has told you in writing to do something different.

So in your position, maybe I would send the notices in multiple ways...

• Hand deliver formal notices to the flat address
• And post formal notices to any other address that person has provided
• And send copies of those notices by email to that person

Then serve a service charge demand on that person (in multiple ways). Don't start the work until they've paid. If they don't pay, start enforcement proceedings.


(To keep things brief, I've made a few assumptions...)

tomp2494

eddddy said:

tomp2494 said:

1. This director is currently living abroad. Their registered address is currently her empty flat in the UK. Does the s20 have to be delivered via recorded delivery - or can it be e-mailed to them?
2. Can they respond in writing via e-mail? 
3. The director is insisting company e-mails are automatically forwarded to her personal e-mail address so she can view quotes/other company e-mails, because she claims not to have access. (it's a yahoo account, to which we all have been given the e-mail login and password. She replies to e-mails sent to her using the company account - via her own yahoo account! So myself and the other director do not agree to setting up forwarding as she can login / has not provided a good explanation as to why she cannot login.)

Are you saying the set-up is as follows:

• 3 people are directors of company that owns a freehold building
• The freehold building contains just 3 leasehold flats
• The same 3 people each own a leasehold flat

If so, it seems like madness to have to do a section 20 consultation. Why not just get 3 quotes, and informally decide which one to go with?





But if you really want to go through with a section 20 consultation...

First, you need to make a distinction - the person you are talking about has 2 roles:

• 1) A director of a company that owns a freehold building
• 2) A leaseholder who owns a leasehold flat

The 3 company directors are free to communicate with each other in whatever way they choose

But the freehold company must be careful about how it serves formal notices on the 3 leaseholders. 

There's been lots of 'arguments' in court about where/how notices should be served, but the consensus seems to be that you should serve notices to the leasehold flat address, unless the leaseholder has told you in writing to do something different.

So in your position, maybe I would send the notices in multiple ways...

• Hand deliver formal notices to the flat address
• And post formal notices to any other address that person has provided
• And send copies of those notices by email to that person

Then serve a service charge demand on that person (in multiple ways). Don't start the work until they've paid. If they don't pay, start enforcement proceedings.


(To keep things brief, I've made a few assumptions...)

Thank you for your help. 

 Agreed - its utter madness that I am even having to consider s20 when there are just the three of us. Your assumptions are correct. 

There was a leak in the roof, the director (A) whos flat it was concerning did not obtain a single quote for repairs for many week. I, director B,   then sourced three within a week - one of which was my brothers firm. Director C then chose my brothers company as did I. 
Director A flatly refused my brothers firm because of the reasons stated in my first post. 
Director A then wanted to go with quote 2, but they had quoted for the wrong repairs. So myself and director C voted that down.

So we are now where we are, we can't seem to agree on anything - despite the fact that all the time the work is not done, our buildings insurance is not valid!! 

My and director C's concern is that, due to director A's ignorance of how the construction industry works, and unless we go with the firm of director A's choice (despite them obtaining zero quotes so far) then they will refuse to pay - and without an s20 in place we will not be able to force them to pay. 

It would seem that director A is doing everything "by the book" so to speak, so therefore I feel that a s20 notice may be required.