Managing Agent / Landlord not sending receipts, only permitting viewing on site

[ajs]

Context:

Having reviewed our accounts for 2023 we received a new additional fee to cover increased expenditure, it is a classic story of service decreasing but fees increasing. As such, we as a collection of leaseholders within the block issued a S22 notice to review the receipts for the accounting year end. All within the date range, ticking all boxes so far.

The managing agent, representing the landlord, has come back & stated they are acting under the following Act:

"You are required to provide me with the reasonable facilities free of charge for inspecting the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary, and for taking copies or extracts from them"

The managing agent has instructed us that they will not send us digitally any receipts from the accounting year. The facility they are providing free from charge is to visit their office in Wales and inspect the receipts on site, and if we wish to take copies they can provide the facility to do so but copies are charged at 10p per photocopy. Having pushed further, they have advised they cannot comment more and we can take independent legal advice if we wish.

With that context, my questions are-

1. Is a managing agent / landlord not obligated to simply send the receipts across?

2. Has anyone else dealt with such a matter with a successful conclusion? (Success defined: obtaining receipts without charge, digitally, so an accountant can review them)

Thanks.

 

[Carryon Regardless]

Comptons by any chance?

[Richlist]

Answers

1. Your Managing Agent is following the legal requirements, they are not required to send you receipts. They are making their facilities available to you. As for charging you for copies......that is reasonable. They are a business and printers, paper & facilities carry a cost which you need to pay for.

2. You can involve your own accountant(s) if you want to but the accounts would normally already have been audited and signed off by independent accountants before issuing them to the leaseholders. So, unless you find something naughty you may be wasting your money.

Obviously I don't know the details of the expenditure you are questioning but it's worth mentioning that many leaseholders around the country are experiencing increased costs. Higher costs for labour and materials feeds through to rises in service charges. It's annoying but virtually inevitable.

Good luck.

[Grampa]

They are just being bloody minded and churlish not to post or email the info to keep good customer relations.

If it was my last block managing agent who really were terrible and they did that to me I would return the compliment ask for a morning appointment turn up in my scruffyish clothes, take a radio, a very smelly packed lunch, keep asking numerous questions and be at disruptive and possible without being obvious, purposely keep jamming their photocopier and asking for help to unblock and then block their toilet up and stay all day and refuse to leave until finished even if it took them past closing time. 

Take pictures of all docs on your phone and print at home.

Then once home put in a formal request under the data protection act of all certain info they hold on you which they legally have to repond to in a certain time frame.

https://www.gov.uk/respond-data-protection-request

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/individual-rights/right-of-access/

Not that I am/can be bloody minded at all.

 

 

 

[Carryon Regardless]

As I understand it,

until there is leasehold reform, the Tories legislated 'some', but it isn't expected to be enacted for a couple of years or so, and by then Labour are expected to have amended / replaced it anyway. If we need to challenge the leaseholder, win or lose, we are liable for all legal costs.

'If' this is Comptons, their supposedly freelance, but in house, solicitor will be well aware of this. He bills his time as a grade A chicken, the judge in my case reduced his charges to grade C, saying that was all that was needed to administrate the case. It was an expensive experience for no positive outcome to me. But I had paid their solicitors salary for a while.

[Richlist]

There are numerous large managing agents around who deal with hundreds of thousands of service charge accounts on many developments & estates across the country. I suspect many of these large companies are very well run. The larger ones will have been through this situation many times, they will know how best to delay /or put off enquiries and when necessary how to deal with the legal aspects and administration of dealing with leaseholders who want to check the accounts. Trying to bend the rules to your advantage isn't going to work.....you need to play the game as the law requires. It has to be expected that however efficient a managing agent is, there will always be at least one leaseholder amongst the many who thinks they are being overcharged for sub standard work. Only the leaseholder can determine if it's worth their time, effort and expense. I personally wouldn't even consider it unless there was a very large expense which I had a reasonable chance of overturning.

If you decide to go ahead, do let us know how you get on.