-
I’m not sure the legislation is that specific - but my only experience is Local Authorities who behave in the opposite fashion - do the work then ask for the money twenty years later.
I suspect if you really think it’s being done badly or in bad faith you’d need to get a solicitor involved and it could end up decided at a tribunal. @BleakRefs might know more.
-
Do they have to have a reasonable estimate of when the work is going to happen, or can they issue the S20 and then sit on your money for years?
Their right to demand money in advance and the section 20 consultation process are two separate things. The freeholder's right to extract service charges in advance depends on the terms of the lease. Usually this will allow the freeholder to estimate the next year's service charge expenditure, and invoices in advance (usually once or twice during the year) based on their estimate. At the end of the year they work out how much they've actually spent, and either you have to make up the difference or they roll over any credit to the next year. That's not set in stone, but it's a common way for leases to operate.
If this is your case then you have to pay the service charges demanded in advance, provided the demand is valid and has been properly made.
tl'dr - read your lease.
You are reading a single comment by @Dammit and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
Howard
Brommers
@Dammit
Do they have to have a reasonable estimate of when the work is going to happen, or can they issue the S20 and then sit on your money for years? I looked at the government legislation website but couldn't see anything covering this question.