Top 5 tips for leaseholders navigating the redress system

Leaseholders can use the redress system to challenge poor managing agent practice. It works best when used methodically and with realistic expectations. These 5 tips explain how to use property redress schemes effectively.

For most residential blocks in England, managing agents and letting agents must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, such as The Property Ombudsman.

Public sector landlords, including local authorities and registered providers (housing associations), should belong to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

A redress scheme can only look at complaints about its member agents. It cannot look at complaints about the freeholder or a residents’ management company.

What to do

• Check the agent’s website, letterhead or office for details of which redress scheme they have joined. Membership and the scheme logo should be displayed.
• If an agent is not in a scheme when they should be, the local authority can fine them and can issue repeated penalties if they still refuse to join.

Redress schemes and the Housing Ombudsman expect leaseholders to exhaust the internal complaints procedure before raising a complaint externally. This is not just a formality: a clear paper trail often decides the outcome.

What to do

• Put your complaint in writing, explain the problem, what outcome you seek, and give a reasonable deadline (typically up to 8 weeks) for a full response.
• Refer to the landlord’s or agent’s published complaints policy and chase if time limits are missed, as delays can amount to poor complaint handling.

Redress schemes focus on service failings and complaint handling. They do not rewrite leases or decide complex legal points. The Housing Ombudsman has a similar focus on maladministration and poor complaint handling by member landlords.

What to focus on

• Unreasonable delays
• Poor communication
• Failure to follow the lease or a relevant Code of Practice
• Incorrect application of agreed charges
• Failure to carry out agreed repairs

Be aware

Issues such as whether a service charge is payable or reasonable, or major disputes with a residents’ management company, may need the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) or the courts instead of a redress scheme.

Both ombudsmen and redress schemes make decisions on documents, not impressions. Clear, chronological evidence can be more persuasive than legal argument alone.

What to do

• Organise emails, service charge demands, accounts, photographs and any expert reports.
• Highlight key dates showing delay or failure to act.
• Cross-refer each point in your complaint to specific documents and, where possible, to relevant lease clauses or statutory duties.

If a complaint is upheld, schemes can order apologies, corrective action and compensation. They cannot usually force structural changes to a building or give binding legal rulings on lease interpretation.

What to consider

• State what you want: an apology, specific works, corrections to accounts, or compensation for distress, inconvenience or out-of-pocket loss.
• Decisions are normally final and intended as full and final settlement of the dispute, so think carefully before accepting an offer of redress.
• If you accept an ombudsman or redress decision, this usually means you cannot take court action or apply to the tribunal on the same issues, although it does not extinguish all legal rights.