The LRG in a Nutshell
The Leaseholders’ Representative Group (LRG), Aylesbury, was formed in the second half of 2007 after an open meeting between the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust (the Trust) and its leaseholders.
A particular motivation for the group's formation was to seek answers and transparency surrounding the Trust's decision (very soon after its inception) to invoke its right, under various leases, to collect service charges. After years of Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) collecting nothing but ground rent and buildings insurance, leaseholders are understandably shocked considering they had no say in the transfer of AVDC's property to the Trust.
Put simply, the LRG does not dispute that service charges may be necessary, but argues that proper consultation was not carried out to ensure that charges would be reasonable. The LRG believes that the rush by the Trust to apply service charges has been the cause of major discrepancies between various estimated bills, even in some cases where leaseholders share the same block of flats. It is felt that the more proactive approach of consultation, rather than reactive blanket billing, would serve the Trust's ethos of 'working together'.
