Leaseholders service charges tribunal

What you need to know and be prepared for at a leasehold valuation tribunal

By exercising their legal rights leaseholders avoid becoming homeless

Council leaseholders across the United kingdom in a fight to avoid becoming homeless are defending themselves from excessive overcharging in their leaseholders service charges account, slapped upon them by local authority leasehold accounts departments, these leasehold bills are all too often proven to be grossly inaccurate, but never inaccurate on the leaseholders side. Strangely somehow the bills they receive can be shown to be extremely excessive to the local authority landlords benefit.

These leaseholders bludgeoned with unreasonable service charges  face bankruptcy, forfeiture of lease, or the reluctant selling of lifelong homes, sometimes at the insistence of a lvt leasehold valuation tribunal direction, that failed to scrutinise the woefully inadequate leasehold accounts.

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it's time that an accountant be allowed to sit on the leasehold valuation tribunal panel if justice is to prevail

That go against them they tend to win tribunal cases where lesses made the mistake of not having quality legal representation and attended a tribunal by themselves in very small numbers. You must get organised claim your rights just like some Norfolk Council leaseholders who received £60,000 refund

 Norwich city Council in response to complaints by leaseholders, ordered contractors to cut prices,  so must other local Authorities. Because the tendering of these contracts tend to follow the same procurement route, where there is excessive charging on leasehold service charges a leasehold valuation tribunal hearing is often the last hope for leasehold rights to be determined

What the media are reporting

misleading residential leaseholders it has issued with massive service charge bills



accounting errors discovered by Leaseholders in Southwark

It's up to leaseholders to be constantly questioning every aspect of how service charge bills were calculated.
Especially if it is known or suspected that your local council is (or was) jointly procuring contracts via an alliance with another borough that is being investigated.

 The Royal institution of chartered surveyors  BCIS building cost information service "price books" available to the public, give valuable guidance on costs, to present to a leasehold valuation tribunal.

The prices listed in these books do not include very large scale bulk buying discounts obtained by local councils. That have been increased by the  formation of alliances with other boroughs.  this reduces prices still farther If Your local Council procured major works contracts via such an alliance, it should admit to huge job lot discounts, problems arise when some Borough Councils show a total lack of transparency.

small neighbourhood housing association offers leaseholders reductions on "the open market" so why are leasehold service charges for works procured via massive bulk buying powers, "which is the case for many Councils across the country", Very much higher than what you as an individual leaseholder could procure at a reduced price with no reduction in quality of work or materials used.

How leaseholders of an estate in London were offered discounts 

You need legal help to defend your leaseholders rights, it's too complicated to tackle by yourself, don't give, in there are firms who can give legal help at a tribunal a firm of property law advocates is required at any leasehold valuation tribunal.

Many local councils are determined to extract from every leaseholder as much as possible in service charges to fill a serious funding gap in leasehold accounts. But there is no clause in any lease i have seen that says it is reasonable to fill a funding gap entirely from charges to the leaseholders,

are the service charges properly recoverable from leaseholders

Leaseholders attempting to transparently receive cost breakdowns from their local Authority

Will need to consider the specialised services of accountants with knowledge of leasehold charges, looking over the lease and service charges on your behalf, this is something leaseholders with worries over their charges should consider.  The audit commission should be asked to investigate valid concerns with leasehold service charges accounts that don't add up, leaseholders have legal rights. But you will need to approach the Audit Commission in the correct manner as described in their official website and only after you have officilly gone through your Local councils official complaints procedure, this will be available if you enquiry at the Town Hall or visit your local Councils official website.

Typical tricks that landlords including Local authorities use to overcharge it's leaseholders

tricks of the trade some landlords are using the tricks outlined here are happening to other leaseholders. I cannot say which tricks applied to my lvt leasehold valuation tribunal case, where major works and service charges were vigorously challenged to maintain my leaseholder rights. But i can say that if you deduct 1 point from the total number of landlords tricks in the above links, you will be left with a grand total of zero tricks left that were not attempted by a well known local Authority Landlords leasehold and incomes department, it's obvious that the key word in the departments name is income, whether it be fair or not.

An accountant will not ordinarily be sitting on the panel of 2 or 3 members  that make up the tribunal, this means that any accounts that an errant landlord produces to the leaseholders and/or the tribunal will have to be scrutinised by any leaseholders attending the tribunal either as applicant or respondent. Construction project accounts can be daunting to some people, but no matter how complex the accounts are it still boils down to simple arithmetic. 

There are issues regarding confidentiality of the accounts that landlords often claim is the reason they won't produce any documents to back up the accounts. This is especially so for Local authorities carrying out large scale projects and using the very few large companies that are able to meet the huge demands of the contracts Local Authorities can offer.

This leaves leaseholders in a bit of a quandary ? do they pay for a Surveyor who could possibly also do much of the work that an Auditor could, but who does not have the power to demand documentary proof that an auditor does, or do they pay for an Auditor that can check the figures and demand the landlord shows them the proof of expenditure, but may not be conversant with the exact cost of specific construction items.

Or do leaseholders instruct both a surveyor an an Auditor to work together ? all leaseholders will need to throughly read this page from the LVT leasehold valuation tribunal official website  and think about it very hard, because if leaseholders decide that the leasehold accounts produced by an unreasonable landlord are so grossly inaccurate that an Auditor is needed. Then they need to discuss it at great length amongst themselves, because a single leaseholder can instruct a surveyor or an accountant to be expert witnesses on their behalf. But only  if a certain amount of leaseholders join together can they Instruct an AUDITOR that then has the power to receive from the landlord all documentary proof upon which to make their report to the leaseholders and/or the leasehold valuation tribunal. However they may be required not to divulge the documents to the leaseholders to maintain the landlords confidentiality with any suppliers and businesses. This may in some circumstances be a better option when dealing with landlords and local authorities that are being difficult, obstructive and generally evasive. leaseholders will need to discuss this option with their legal representatives should they have them, the decision on which route to take  may not alway be straightforward . In all cases where there is more than two leasehold dwellings in one property as defined by the lease, two thirds of the leaseholders must agree to instruct an Auditor before legal action can be taken.

All leaseholders must act in unison it adds impact to your case and prevents those you are complaining about, calling a lone complainer a trouble maker. That's why these united leaseholders got results and some may get compensation.  

EXTRACT FROM BRENTWOOD WEEKLY NEWS 

“A number of leaseholders are now going to get revised estimates – quite a bit is being knocked off.

“Newham has also promised to look again at its double glazing plans and whether newer windows need to be removed and replaced.”

He said in the cases where double glazing had already been removed unecessarily, Newham was considering giving leaseholders compensation.

End of extract