What the FTT cannot easily do for you
Collective enfranchisement and Right to Manage are usually unavailable where the immediate landlord is a local authority or a registered provider of social housing whose proportion of social-rented tenants in the building puts it outside the qualifying conditions. These exclusions exist by statute and require primary legislation to change.
- Most council-managed blocks fail the RTM qualifying tenant test because of the proportion of secure / assured tenants.
- Enfranchisement also generally fails where the immediate landlord is a public body for the qualifying tenant calculation.
What the FTT can absolutely do for you
The tribunal's s.27A and Schedule 11 jurisdiction is fully available against councils and housing associations. In practice it is used to:
- Determine whether service charge items are reasonable and properly recoverable under your lease.
- Review major works charges — including cladding remediation, lift renewal, roof replacement, district heating upgrades and large-scale window programmes.
- Police Section 20 consultation on framework contracts (where the council uses a long-term framework agreement).
- Challenge administration charges, consent fees and added legal costs.
- Restrict the council or HA from recovering its tribunal legal costs through the service charge (s.20C and Schedule 11 paragraph 5A).
- In the Building Safety Act 2022 era, determine the application of leaseholder protections and the Schedule 8 protected leaseholder regime.
The cladding and Building Safety Act overlay
The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced strong leaseholder protections in 'relevant buildings' (broadly, residential blocks of 11m or more in height with at least two flats). Schedule 8 limits and in some cases extinguishes service charge liability for cladding and related building safety remediation works, subject to qualifying lease conditions.
The FTT (Property Chamber) determines disputes about whether a lease is a qualifying lease, whether a leaseholder enjoys cap or zero-cost protection, and how the Schedule 8 caps apply to a particular cost. Council and HA leaseholders should always check Schedule 8 status before paying a remediation demand.
The TMO question
A Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) manages a council estate on behalf of the council under a management agreement. TMOs sit in social housing land — complaints about repair standards or service generally go through the council's internal complaints process and on to the Housing Ombudsman. Leaseholder cost disputes still come to the FTT, because the service charge demand technically comes from the council (or the TMO acting on its behalf), and the s.27A jurisdiction is unaffected.
Common targets in council and HA major works
- Aggregated costs without proper cost allocation per block, estate or service.
- Missed Section 20 consultation steps (particularly where work is awarded under a long-term framework).
- Oversized or inappropriate contractor frameworks generating uplifts on every job.
- Cladding and fire safety remediation costs that should be capped or zero-rated under the Building Safety Act 2022.
- Roof renewal billed as 'major works' where the actual scope is patch repair.
- Lift renewal contracts running over-budget without proper variation control.
- Management fees on top of contractor fees and surveyor fees — double-charging.
What an effective challenge looks like
Council and HA major works bills are highly susceptible to structured challenge precisely because they are templated. A well-prepared block of leaseholders, working as a group, with a single tribunal-ready Scott Schedule and clear allocation analysis, regularly secures reductions of 15–40% on contested bills and obtains s.20C orders preventing the landlord recovering its tribunal costs through the next year's accounts.
Building safety remediation — practical sequence
- Confirm the building's height and qualifying status under the Building Safety Act 2022.
- Establish whether each lease is a qualifying lease (date, value, leaseholder ownership).
- Apply the Schedule 8 cap or zero-rating per qualifying leaseholder.
- Challenge the residual cost under s.27A on reasonableness and lease recoverability.
- Apply for s.20C and Schedule 11 paragraph 5A orders to lock in cost protection.