Leasehold building works, does the expected cost per leaseholder have to be stated?

tomstickland · 4 October 2006 at 11:29PM

This is a specific question about a situation where a managing agent wants do works to a block of flats and has to consult with the leaseholders about the works and their cost.

When a managing agent carries out the consultation process because the expected cost per leaseholder exceeds the £250 limit, then do they have to state the expected cost per leaseholder?

I've found this
http://www.lease-advice.org/s20main.htm#Notice of intention to carry out work

Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (as amended) (the 1985 Act') provides that a landlord (as defined by Section 30 of the 1985 Act) must consult leaseholders who are required under the terms of their leases to contribute (by payment of service charges) to costs incurred under qualifying works, where the contribution of any one leaseholder will exceed £250. 'Qualifying works' are defined by Section 20ZA of the 1985 Act.

I'm struggling to find any reference where it says "the landlord must provide details of the expected cost per leaseholder".

In our own case, a number of quotes were provided, but no reference made to how much each leaseholder would pay if the cheapest quote was used.

Eg:
£18K quote, we have £8K in our funds, so there will be a £10K shortfall, which is £1000 for each leaseholder.
Surely they would have done this calculation to see if the amount was going to exceed £250 before running the exercise?

tomstickland · 4 October 2006 at 11:39PM

I've found this too, but it's still a bit vague:
http://www.lease-advice.org/scgrmain.htm#Consultation on major works

Next, in most cases the landlord must serve a second notice on the leaseholders, the Notice of Proposals. This sets out the details of the proposed works and the likely costs. The landlord must supply a statement setting out the estimated amounts of the proposed work specified in at least two of the estimates, and make available for inspection all of the estimates for the work, without charge.

tomstickland · 4 October 2006 at 11:49PM

I found this too

Stage 2:
......
We must give you an estimate of your contribution.

http://www.newham.gov.uk/Services/LeaseholdConsultation/AboutUs/HowMajorWorksConsultationWorks.htm

I'm trying to find an online copy of the 1985 act.

Xbigman · 5 October 2006 at 5:13AM

I edited this bit out after reading the other thread.

From memory, my old landlord was given notice that the roof needed doing on the block of flats I lived in. That came with a quote for the total cost of work to be carried out. He queried this and was told that it was a legal requirement that all the leaseholders would have to pay equaly. Is that any help?
Regards

X

tomstickland · 5 October 2006 at 11:35AM

lease-advice.org have advised me that:
-the agent is not obliged to inform the leaseholders of the expected cost per leaseholder.

-consulting on both interior and exterior work and then only actioning exterior work is acceptable, since the total cost per leaseholder would then be less.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Leasehold building works, does the expected cost per leaseholder have to be stated?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free