PRERA are aware and talking to the Lambeth Homeowners Association about the overcharging and poor quality of major and capital works reported by the BBC last month (watch video):
BBC News article – Council refunded £1.5m to ‘gagged’ leaseholders
Lambeth Homeowners Association
Lambeth Homeowners’ Association (LHA) committee meeting was held on Thursday 4th July 2024. The group of committee members met on Zoom to discuss future plans, in-particular the recent investigative report shown above.
Their update:
Lambeth in the news
- We are talking to journalists on other topics (inc. data breaches) and working on another investigation that we could take to the press when we know more.
- We are also trying to talk to the Lambeth Corporate Committee, who look at governance about the points raised in the BBC coverage.
- We are also developing a plan to lobby MPs (see below).
Lobbying MPs
- We recently met up with another leaseholder to discuss this, and we think that there is a real opportunity to have an influence on the new governments reform of leaseholds and we are going to try to do this in partnership with other local authority leaseholder organisations.
- Leaseholders should also write to their own MPs; We hope to provide advice on how to do this such as example letters.
Member research into Lambeth failings
- A member has identified three areas where Lambeth may be acting improperly; in Insurance, in external drains (which is actually Thames Water’s responsibility), and also the management of Parks. We are currently investigating further, and the BBC could also be interested in these stories.
First Tier Tribunals
- Alasdair has created some resources on how to do this, a diary of his own progress
With links to other resources within the posts.
Service Charge Insights
- Alasdair created this resource in January. It lets leaseholders compare their costs with other properties in Lambeth, giving greater transparency into service charge costs.
- He is also in contact with leaseholders in two other London boroughs to potentially include some of their data, so that we can see how Lambeth costs compare to other areas.
Data Breach
- Lambeth has – by mistake or by incompetence – published some details of some leaseholders (address and email addresses). We are monitoring the situation, and have notified those whose email address was leaked. We will see if there is a way to contact those whose address was leaked (although this is really Lambeth’s responsibility).
- Separately, we have been made aware that a journalist at the BBC is also working on a story about another data breach.