Issue - items at meetings - Members' Development Session on Leasehold Issues

Presentation by Dave Arthur, Right to Buy and Leasehold Senior Officer

35.1    Dave Arthur, Right to Buy and Leasehold Senior Officer gave a presentation on council leasehold issues to the members. Mr Arthur answered questions from the members afterwards.

35.2    Members asked whether the council would work with leaseholders to come to an agreement over the level of service charges. Mr Arthur said that one of the themes from the leaseholder satisfaction survey showed that some residents wanted works carried out at their building and perhaps a higher level of gardening work to be carried out than currently happened, and were willing to pay more towards this. There was a piece of work being done to agree local levels of grounds maintenance carried out. However, he said that the key items of service charging would always be for works that were absolutely required at the building. When this was the case, like lift replacement for example, the leaseholder was liable to pay their percentage share of the costs incurred by the council. The onus was therefore on the council to ensure costs were good value for money and to work with leaseholders on providing a range of payment options for leaseholders with financial difficulties with major works charges.

35.3    Members queried why the different leasehold terms for Brighton and for Hove properties. They heard that this was due to historic lease agreements where varying them was extremely problematic after they had been entered into. With so many leases created prior to unification it was not helpful to create yet another lease to work with.

35.4    Members asked whether there was any benchmarking done against private rented sector providers in Brighton and Hove. They heard that this did not happen but that the council did benchmark against other city local authorities on home ownership, service charges and other leasehold matters.

35.5    Mr Arthur was thanked for his presentation.