London leaseholders call for service charge reform

Ms Brown says: “We just got a bill yesterday which included £3,500 in maintenance with no breakdown of what that is. We are yet to see them do any maintenance on the property but they just keep upping it.”

Ms Woods and Ms Brown own the only two flats in their block near Richmond, south-west London – but not the freehold. The management company that organises the maintenance of their block was appointed by the freeholder.

Among the many items they have been billed for are several building surveys, each costing about £1,000, which the pair say haven’t taken place.

Ms Brown questions why they have a management company at all as there are no internal communal areas and no communal assets like a lift or garden.

“Basic questions like, ‘What are you doing with this money?’, we can’t get answers for, and there seems to be no right of recourse on this – we have no power,” she adds.

“Every time I think of £20,000, I’m thinking, ‘that’s my pension’,” says Ms Woods. “They are taking my life, they are ruining my life – it’s criminal.”