Appointment of a surveyor and management audits
Appointment of a surveyor
Qualification
This is a right only available to a recognised tenants’ association, that is a tenants’ association formally recognised by the landlord or by the local Rent Assessment Committee.
The right applies to tenants and leaseholders but is not available to individuals, only to the recognised tenants’ association.
Where there is already a recognised tenants’ association in existence the appointment can be simply achieved and avoids the complications and, sometimes, difficulties of achieving the two-thirds majority required for the management audit. However, where there is no recognised association this will have to be put in place first, before any further progress can be made (see Appendix 2).
In cases where tenants wish to appoint a surveyor in furtherance of a challenge of service charges the additional delay in setting up and obtaining recognition of an association may cause difficulties.
Appointment
The surveyor must be qualified as in the case of a management audit. There are no restrictions on the surveyors being a tenant of the premises. The surveyor may also appoint an assistant.
The assistant can be another expert to investigate and advise on particular issues. For example, the surveyor can call in an accountant to check the soundness of the landlord’s accounting systems and financial management and to look at the safeguarding of the tenants’ sinking funds. Similarly, they can appoint consulting engineers to check on technical and construction matters.
Rights of access
The rights available to the appointed surveyor are wider and more flexible than for the management audit. They may require the landlord:
- to afford them reasonable facilities for inspections and copying any documents, sight of which is reasonably required by them for the purpose of their functions
- to allow an inspection of any common parts comprised in the relevant premises or any appurtenant property
Notice to the landlord
The formal appointment of the surveyor takes effect from the service of a notice on the landlord by the association stating:
- the name and address of the surveyor
- the duration of their appointment
- the matters in respect of which they are appointed
The notice is, at this stage, simply a notification to the landlord of the appointment and does not include any requirements for information from the landlord.
The appointment will remain in effect until the service of a further notice cancelling the arrangement.
There is no prescribed form for the notice to the landlord, who must comply within one week “or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter”; or give the surveyor a notice stating that he objects to doing so for reasons specified in the notice. Where the landlord fails to comply after one month and has not served a notice of objection the surveyor may immediately apply to the court for an order (within a period of four months from service of their original notice).
Tenants should recognise that in pursuit of information the appointed surveyor has far more rights on their behalf than the individual tenants or the tenants’ association.
The full powers available to appointed surveyors are set out in Schedule 4 to the 1996 Housing Act.
Challenging service charges
The area in which a surveyor may be particularly valuable is in assembling and presenting the evidence for a challenge of service charges and, at the tribunal hearing, countering the landlord’s arguments. The surveyor’s rights to demand information, to obtain access for inspection and their own technical expertise can usefully inform arguments about the costs of works of repair.
For example, the surveyor may consider the following matters: was or is the work necessary at all? How much of the necessary work arises from previous neglect? How thorough was or is the specification and how much is it a reflection of what actually needs doing? What arrangements has the landlord for price tendering? How are the works supervised? What arrangements are there to deal with additional or unforeseen works – does this provide an opportunity to increase previously agreed costs? What arrangements has the landlord for final inspection and payment? – and, perhaps, of most importance, were the works done properly?
All these issues can be addressed by a competent surveyor working within, and fully utilising, the rights of the 1996 Act.
- Last updated:
- 27 August 2021
- Next review:
- 12 December 2026
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