Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recourse to action residents have in relation to builders who having part-developed a freehold site appoint a management company that unsatisfactorily administers the common parts of that site; and whether there is an equivalent of the Leasehold Advisory Service from which freeholders can seek help.

The Government is committed to promoting fairness and transparency for leaseholders and freeholders and ensuring that consumers are protected from abuse and poor service.

There are a number of ways to take action against a poor managing agent. Freeholders can make a formal complaint through their managing agent’s own complaints procedure. A complaint can also be made to one of the Government-recognised redress scheme. By law all property agents are required to belong to one of the following three redress schemes: Ombudsman Services Property, Property Redress Scheme and The Property Ombudsman.

To provide additional protections, on 21 December 2017, we set out a package of measures to tackle abuses and unfair practices in the leasehold market. This includes legislation to ensure that freeholders who pay charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private or mixed use estate, can access equivalent rights as leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of service charges.

On 1 April, we published the response to our recent call for evidence on protecting consumers in the letting and managing agent market. Proposals include establishing a working group to consider how fees such as service charges should be presented to consumers and to explore the best means to challenge fees which are unjustified.