Who do I complain to if the property manager is not part of a property redress scheme?

Friedbagel

The government website states 

You must join a redress scheme if you’re:

· an estate agent dealing with residential properties in the UK

· a letting agent or property manager in England or Wales

If a customer has a complaint about your service that you cannot resolve between yourselves, they can complain to the scheme.

The approved redress schemes are:

· The Property Ombudsman Limited

· Property Redress Scheme

You may be fined up to £5,000 and have your licence revoked if you do not join a redress scheme.

I am a share of freehold owner of a studio flat. The flat is managed by ‘The Board of Directors’ who are fellow landlords. However ‘The Board of Directors’ is not on either of these redress schemes and is refusing to respond to my message about this. So who do I complain to as there is a problem?

I am being bullied by The Board of Directors who have forced me to pay a £50 penalty for responding to an email a day late otherwise they would charge me £100 if this is not paid within 7 days.

They are now insisting on making me install 2 fire doors for £2,800 the most expensive quote in a block of 39 flats. I have chosen to do this via a cheaper private contractor not their more expensive contractors.

However now The Board of Directors are threatening to make me pay a penalty of £100 and £100/month after if the new fire doors arent installed by 19th August when I told them the private contractor cant meet this deadline and will do this by 3rd September which is when their contractors would have installed the doors.

I would like to complain about this £100 fine that I was told I am going to receive as I both me and the contractor feel this is unreasonable.

So the questions are:

What do I do when I receive the £100 penalty?

Who can I complain to as  ‘The Board of Directors’ are not on any property redress scheme despite the government law?

Friedbagel

Thank you for your email confirming that you now intend to proceed under Option B.

As you will recall, from the outset of this project you were given the choice between Option A (group contractor) and Option B (instructing your own contractor). You initially selected Option A, and all communications from Hilton Grange Ltd have made it clear that Option B works must be completed by 20 August 2025.

Now that you have chosen to revert to Option B, we must insist that you comply fully with the original terms. To avoid any penalties, we require:

• Written confirmation of the scheduled installation date from South Coast Fire Doors, and
• Submission of valid fire certification for the new door and frame once works are complete

Please provide this information. If works are not completed by 20 August 2025, or appropriate certification is not provided, a £100 administration charge will be applied to your service charge account, and a further £100 each month thereafter until compliance is achieved.

As for your request regarding the lease, we suggest you refer directly to your copy of the lease agreement. You will find clear obligations requiring lessees to:

• Keep the demised premises in good and substantial repair and condition (Schedule 2, Clause 4)
• Comply with applicable legislation (Schedule 2, Clause 3)
• Permit the landlord to recover reasonable costs for addressing breaches of the lease

Administrative charges for non-compliance are permitted under these provisions.

Finally, while you are free to choose your own contractor under Option B, Hilton Grange Ltd will not enter into a debate about contractor preference.

We look forward to receiving confirmation of your installation date.

Kind regards,

Board of Directors

Hilton Grange Ltd

anselld

Third thread on the same issue.  Best to stick to one.

However, the ultimate authority in the case of unreasonable service charges is the First Tier Tribunal https://www.gov.uk/housing-tribunals 

eddddy

As above, what you describe is a Service Charge dispute.

The redress schemes will not deal with Service Charge disputes - they deal with things like poor service.

For a service charge dispute, you would go to a tribunal...

2.4 Limits on service charges

Service charges can go up or down without any limit, but the landlord can only recover costs which are reasonable. You have the right to apply to the tribunal to challenge any service charges that you feel are unreasonable.

Link: https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/service-charges-other-issues/

As I mentioned in your other thread, 'Penalties' are illegal - so you would almost certainly win at tribunal (an illegal charge isn't 'reasonable').

Also, the tribunal would probably order the management company to pay your costs. But then the management company shareholders would probably have to pay those costs - and I guess that's you and your neighbours.