Leaseholder Issues

For far too long, leaseholders have not had a forum to unite, and ensure they get value and transparency from service charges and capital works projects.

This web forum could change all this, and be a game changer for leaseholders.

The Brandon estate has approximately 25% of leaseholders. Southwark does not issue a standard lease, and this makes it quite difficult for leaseholders to group together and query annual service charges, or more importantly capital works projects initiated by Southwark.

Leaseholders are liable for large bills for these works. Southwark has benefitted of a policy of “divide and conquer” for years.

The leaseholder forum could change all this. Having a private discussion forum section where leaseholders can liaise online will give us the opportunity to unite, and query and verify service charges and Section 20 works, to ensure that we are getting fair value, and stop Southwark contractors treating leaseholders as cash cows.

We can also unite, and challenge excessive council spending, possibly taking cases to the Leaseholder Valuation Tribunal (LVT). Following a seriously flawed ‘window replacement scheme’ in 2004, a group of Brandon residents engaged solicitors, and won a ruling against Southwark, to the tune of £4M.

This saved every leaseholder thousands of pounds.