Referring your complaint to the First Tier Tribunal

Complaints from leaseholders about the fairness of service charges, and the quality of services or works they are collected for, must be referred to the First-Tier Tribunal (or in Wales, The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal).

The Tribunal can – where asked – examine a wide range of issues. They can investigate costs such as insurance, maintenance and repair charges, and management or administration fees. They can visit your site to check whether scheduled works such as cleaning or gardening have been done regularly or completed to a good standard. They can also give a view as to whether the property manager has responded to your concerns in an appropriate manner. Finally, they can make recommendations for improvements to the services, or appoint a new manager altogether.

We recommend that you also contact The Leasehold Advisory Service and view the Tribunal decisions on their website.

Please note that residents who own the Freehold of their Property cannot apply to Tribunal and should refer their dispute to the County Court.

The Association of Residential Managing Agents provides further guidance for both Leaseholder residents and freeholder residents, this guidance can be accessed in the helpful links box to the right.

If you are still uncertain if your complaint is something TPO can or cannot consider, you can submit an advice request form and a member of the team will get back to you with further guidance.

Advice Request Form