Leaseholders' Representative Group

By now (we hope!) all leaseholders should have received their final bills for service charges within the financial year 2007/2008.  I say 'we hope' because the postal service which the Trust uses has proven to be less than reliable, with certainly mine and my neighbour's bills arriving 11 days after the date of the letter; and the letter states that there is 28 days to pay from its date (15 Sept), which effectively means you now only have one week to pay! Early reports from leaseholders indicate that there are similar problems as with the estimated bills, i.e. differences in bill items and amounts with people living on the same estate and even the same block of flats.  Perhaps more worrying is that someone has been told they have paid £200 on account when they have not, and for another the bill shows nothing paid when they have paid something... even after these bills have been audited by professional, and no doubt expensive, accountants. If there is a problem with your bill, don't delay, contact the Trust now!  Use the complaints procedure if necessary so that your issue is handled quickly and effectively. We are collecting evidence so it would really help our cause if you could photocopy or scan the bills with discrepancies - send them to the address on our recent newsletter or e-mail scans to secretary@lrg-aylesbury.org.uk.  If you do not wish to reveal your bill please write to us with details of discrepancies or problems you have when trying to resolve service charge issues with the Trust. Checklist:

• Are you actually receiving the services for which you are being billed? Unsure?  Ask the Trust for copies of their invoices.
• Does your bill differ from those of your neighbours? Yes?  Take copies of the bills and submit them to the Trust with a complaint.  Remember however that the Building Insurance Premium for this period was calculated on the old method relative to property valuation; this is okay and will probably be different to the same item on others' bills - the next financial year's bills will base it on the number of bedrooms.
• Is the Trust legally allowed to charge you for all of the services? Be lease-aware!  Read your lease immediately.  Some of the billed items are quite vague so you may need to ask the Trust elaborate.
• Is there a discrepancy with the amount you have already paid? Dig out your bank records / receipts, you may be surprised.

It's a shame that a large amount of the administration of reconciling bills appears to be down to the leaseholders despite the length of time it has taken the Trust to produce this first set of service charges. Finally, in a recent newsletter published by the LRG we offered the opportunity for leaseholders to attend a Lease Awareness session for anyone who would like to have a better understanding of their lease.  Even if you have paid any amount of your bill, you can still dispute any of the service charges with the possibility of receiving a credit on your account against future service charges.