The works schedule was not clearly laid out, to the extent that it’s questionable if some of it ever took place at all. It certainly doesn’t inspire confidence when charges are listed for lift maintenance - in a block which has no lift.
Unfortunately, this is a far from an isolated problem. In my Horsham office, I have at least 3 other major pieces of casework along the same lines. There are thousands more across the country and I’m currently campaigning with my Liberal Democrat colleagues in Parliament for action. Attention has fallen in particular on a property management company called FirstPort, which manages more than 400,000 properties across the UK, but they’re far from the only suspects.
The underlying problem is our archaic leasehold system, which applies to about 1 in 5 homeowners. In the dying moments of the last government, legislation was passed to help people negotiate extensions to their lease or buy out the freehold. But the legislation has not been enacted yet and in any case falls well short of a total solution - for example, it doesn’t include a cap on ground rents. The new Labour government has promised an upgrade.
In the meantime, Horsham residents are suffering along with everyone else. Figures from the Property Institute last year suggested that even for average cases, service charges have increased by 41% in the previous five years.
This is a national problem but there is a very direct human price to pay. People’s lives are being ruined. Companies have seen the opportunity for easy money, by buying out existing freehold or management companies. It’s something that really should have been dealt with a long time ago and I hope the present government will act with a proper sense of urgency.