Leaseholders’ Representative Group

This article was published in the Bucks Herald, Wednesday 2nd December 2009.

If you feel strongly about the VAHT's handling of service charges, please help strengthen our voice by writing to the editor of the Bucks Herald: editorial@bucksherald.co.uk

The VAHT's response in this article is typically one of 'damage limitation'. Please join us at the tribunal hearing, 28th January 2010, 11am at the Holiday Inn on Aston Clinton Road (map)

Housing Trust and leaseholders at war over service charges and 'unclear' costs

By Harriet Snookes, Reporter. harriet.snookes@bucksherald.co.uk 01296 619773.

The Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust is to be taken to a tribunal in the New Year by a leaseholders association whose members feel they are being treated unfairly. The Leaseholders' Representative Group (LRG) claim that VAHT has been overcharging its members for services they do not request, and complain that it's not clear what their money pays for.

The group's acting chairman Keith Nials says the issue has been rumbling on for 18 months.

He said: "What we want out of this tribunal is fairness, transparency and clarity. "I think the Trust has underestimated us and whether we win, lose or draw we are still going ahead with this. "They seem to pluck numbers from the air and come up with different figures for different people. They have also started charging for admin costs for their new three tier admin system, but we are already paying for management costs and we regard this as the same thing."

Christine Campbell, a former board member who represented the leaseholders, was removed from the board which oversees the running of the homes on Friday because she hadn't paid her service bill. Miss Campbell said she was perfectly within her rights not to have paid because she was still within the 28-day time frame in which she was able to request a breakdown of what work the bill was covering.

She said: "When they ask you to pay a service charge bill, you are required to pay 50 per cent up front, which I did and then you have 28 days to pay the rest.

"In that time, they will come forward and tell you what the bill will be covering. The 28 days had not run out but the other board members said that because I was a board member myself, I had to pay the full cost.

"I am legally entitled to have that information and not having access to that information before I pay is not fair.

"No one is given a quote for a bill without checking what it is they are paying for.

"Our service charges have gone up from about £150, which covered ground rent and insurance, to about £400 per household, per year.

"It is not unreasonable for people to want to know what they are paying for." Ian Silver from the VAHT said: "The Trust is aware that two individual leaseholders have decided to apply to the Leaseholders Valuation Tribunal, LVT. "We understand that they are seeking a determination as to whether the administration and management parts of their service charges, applied under the agreed terms of their leases, are reasonable. "The Trust has co-operated fully with the LRG by providing access to information relevant to this, and other enquiries, made over the last year.

"This is the first time the Trust has been the subject of an LVT enquiry and we welcome the opportunity to put forward our case.

"We believe the costs applied in our service charges, which cover only the services relevant and used by leaseholders, are reasonable and represent value for money.

"The Trust expects the outcome of the Tribunal to be settled by the end of January and we will of course abide by the findings.

"Since the introduction of services charges to leaseholders in 2007, the Trust has produced annotated estimates and bills, sent with two accompanying Leaseholder Service Charge leaflets. The information contained in the correspondence has fully explained the breakdown and the reasons for charges.

"We helped form and fund the LRG and have worked tirelessly with them over the last two years. We have had regular, meetings with the them at which all the above issues have been fully and frankly discussed.

"We have also made available to the LRG the relevant documents relating to how the charges are calculated.

"The Trust's board approved a introductory 50 per cent discount to be applied on the first year's bills and subsequently, in partnership with the LRG, we have negotiated a large discount on the building insurance premiums previously paid by leaseholders.

"The Trust will be issuing a statement next week in regard to Christine Campbell's position on the Trust's board."

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If you feel strongly about the VAHT's handling of service charges, please help strengthen our voice by writing to the editor of the Bucks Herald: editorial@bucksherald.co.uk

The VAHT's response in this article is typically one of 'damage limitation'. Please join us at the tribunal hearing, 28th January 2010 at the Holiday Inn on Aston Clinton Road.

Bucks Herald Advert

Fighting Fund

Tom Watt to stand down as Chair

Tonight the BBC's Watchdog programme broadcast a feature on property management fees. It's something we have believed for quite some time, but now this programme seems to prove, up and down the country, that many leaseholders are getting a raw deal from property management companies. You can watch the programme again on the BBC iPlayer (scroll to time index 14:50) for the next seven days or read the report online where you can make comments that will be read by the programme editors. This probably won't be the last we hear of this!

Donwload this document (PDF). A VAST AMOUNT OF local leaseholders are being overcharged for services by the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust. That is the considered professional opinion of the Leaseholders’ Representative Group’s solicitor Irwin Mitchell, who has been engaged by the leaseholder-elected volunteers to examine the legality and justification for new service charges being imposed by the Trust, which took over all the housing stock of Aylesbury Vale District Council two years ago. The solicitor is particularly critical of the management and administrative charges being imposed by the Trust. After examining Trust documents, sample leases of several resident leaseholders, and the bills that they have received from the Trust, the solicitor says that it has many reservations about the charges, and for example, calculates that the sum apportioned to leaseholder management should be £16,852 rather than the £29,088 claimed by the Trust. Full details of the solicitor’s observations were reported at last month’s committee meeting of the LRG by its chairman Tom Watt. He said that in spite of many meetings with the Trust during the past two years over service charge issues, very few of them had been resolved, and it now seemed very likely that the issues would have to be taken to a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. “The gloves are off. We have talked to the Trust for over two years and they are just not listening to us. All we want is a fair deal, and at present we are just not getting one,” says Mr Watt. He reported to the meeting that many leaseholders are blindly paying the large three figure service charges now in addition to the former annual ground rent and insurance premium, which used to be charged by AVDC, simply because they do not understand them. “Be lease-aware. Only pay what is specified in your lease,” advised Mr Watt, who estimates that most leaseholder bills have increased by over 200% since the Trust took over from the Council. At the January meeting he announced a new membership recruitment drive to persuade more of the 600-plus leaseholders in the Vale to take an active interest in the campaign of the Leaseholders’ Representative Group; the goal to get a fair deal for all leaseholders. As part of its campaign the LRG has created a website at www.lrg-aylesbury.org.uk where much more information about its activities and meetings can be found.