Notting Hill Genesis (202408474)

Background

1. The resident queried a service charge increase on 8 April 2024. He raised a complaint on 29 April 2024, as the landlord had not responded. He asked why the window cleaning and cleaning costs had significantly increased and raised concerns about the standard of cleaning. He raised a further complaint on 20 May 2024 as he thought the service charge was disproportionately high for the size of his flat. The resident referred his complaint to the Service, as he remained dissatisfied with the level of the service charge and the lack of transparency about the costs. He wanted the landlord to review the service charges and provide the service charge statements from 2018/19 onwards.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of the resident’s service charge queries and request for actual service charge costs.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the resident’s service charge queries and request for actual service charge costs.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Reasons

4. The circumstances of this complaint are well known by the parties involved, so it is not necessary to detail everything that’s happened or comment on all the information we’ve reviewed. We’ve only included the key information that forms the basis of our decision of whether the landlord is responsible for maladministration.

What we have not considered

5. We do not investigate complaints about the level or increase of service charges. As part of the resident’s complaint is about the level, increase, and reasonableness of the service charges, and the impact of the service charges on the sale price of his property, we will not investigate it. The tribunal or court are more likely to be best placed to consider this matter, given their powers and expertise.

What we have considered

6. The resident initially raised concerns about the service charge increase on 8 April 2024, which the landlord failed to address until 3 June 2024, despite the resident raising 2 complaints about the issue. It was reasonable that the landlord recognised and redressed the delays and poor communication in its complaint response.
7. The landlord explained that there had been increases in the management fees, reserve fund contributions, fire safety costs, and staff costs for the newly appointed estate management team. However, it failed to address the resident’s specific concerns regarding the increase in cleaning and window cleaning, and the standard of cleaning. It is vital that landlords address all points raised in complaints to provide a clear, fair, and complete response that fully considers the resident’s concerns. As it failed to do so, the issue remains unresolved.
8. The resident asked the landlord to confirm why his service charges had increased significantly more than other properties in the area. It explained it previously equally split the charges between properties, but it intended to allocate charges by square foot to more accurately reflect the usage and benefits received by each resident. The lease allows “a fair and reasonable proportion to be assessed from time to time by the authorized person”. The landlord is therefore entitled to determine for itself an appropriate apportionment method and it was reasonable that it reviewed it considering the resident’s concerns. The landlord was entitled to decide not to apply a retrospective refund as it previously determined the equal split method was reasonable, which was in line with the lease. The landlord correctly signposted the resident to the First-tier Tribunal if he remained dissatisfied with this element of the complaint.
9. The resident is also dissatisfied that the landlord has not provided actual service charge account statements since 2019. In its complaint response, the landlord said that it had sent a section 20B notice for 2022/23 on 25 September 2023 and for 2023/24 on 23 September 2024. A section 20B notice extends the 18-month timescale in which landlords can demand payment for costs incurred. There is no prescribed timescale within which a landlord must issue its actual costs after serving a notice under section 20B. It was reasonable that the landlord advised it hired additional staff to focus on the outstanding service charge accounts. This demonstrated it took practical steps to resolve the issue.
10. However, the landlord said it was unable to provide the relevant information for 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 at the time of the complaint response, so it would provide the actual accounts or copy of the section 20B notices for those periods by 14 March 2025. The resident told the Service the landlord has not since provided the information and the landlord has not provided any evidence to suggest it did. Landlords should uphold agreed complaint resolution actions. The landlord has provided insufficient information to confirm that it has correctly handled the accounts for the associated periods.
11. Following the completion of the landlord’s complaint process, the resident told the Service that the landlord added a service charge adjustment to his account, suggesting it had completed the final accounts. He said several of his neighbours had received copies of the actual service charge accounts up to the 2022/23 period, but he had not. He asked the landlord for the completed actual accounts on 2 March 2026 but said it has not responded.
12. Overall, there were delays in the landlord’s responses, it did not address the resident’s concerns in full, and it did not fulfil its commitment to provide key service charge information. This prevented the resident from verifying charges and caused ongoing uncertainty. In its final response, the landlord offered £600 compensation, comprised of £300 for complaint handling failings, £100 for delays in addressing his service charge enquiries, £50 for failure to provide the final accounts since 2019, and £150 for poor communication. This was proportionate to the identified failings. However, it failed to address his concerns about the cleaning and window cleaning costs and the standard of cleaning and has not fulfilled the complaint resolution commitments. As such, an additional £100 is warranted for the additional time and effort caused to the resident pursuing the issues.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.