<a href="https://www.lease-advice.org/article/leasehold-and-freehold-reform-act-2024/">https://www.lease-advice.org/article/leasehold-and-freehold-reform-act-2024/</a>Islington Leaseholders Association
Leaseholders of Islington ex-local authority properties and our aim is to to ensure that Islington Council, its managing agent(s) and Partners, provide leaseholders with a better service and value for money
It’s all very well Councillor Una O’Halloran (Daily Telegraph 26/7/25, “Islington plans purchase of 900 former council houses”) boasting about the Council’s scheme to “buy back” former council homes for temporary accommodation. What she fails to say is that these properties are owned by former council tenants — people who paid their rent in full, 125 years in advance, by purchasing their flats.
Now long-standing residents are being pushed aside so the Council can parade its “achievements” as a triumph of social policy. In truth, it’s little more than an act of displacement dressed up as compassion.
When leaseholders challenge the ever-escalating major works bills, the Council falls back on its same hollow excuses — shouted ever louder, as though volume were a substitute for reason. The old adage certainly fits perfectly, “empty barrels make the most noise”.
If this Council genuinely believed in equality, it would use the 11–14% from over-specified, building projects — the very excesses that create these problems — to support leaseholders. Reducing re-chargeable costs or extending payment terms (without the insult of compound interest) would show leadership. Instead, the Council behave like a debt collector.
Few outside this experience grasp the reality of being a council leaseholder : the relentless anxiety, sleepless nights, feeling of being treated as a “cash cow” by the authority that once offered security and community.
At the I L A, we hear this pain month after month. The stories are heartbreaking — ordinary residents bullied, threatened, and financially bled by a Council that seems more interested in retaining control than serving its residents.
If the Council wants to create a “fairer Islington,” it should start by treating its leaseholders with fairness, dignity, and respect — not as collateral damage in a PR campaign.”
Leaseholders deserve transparency, proper oversight, and fair treatment
Dear Editor,
I am writing to inform readers that I intend to stand as an independent leaseholder candidate in the May 2026 local elections.
Over recent months, I have personally attended a number of Section 20 (S20) consultation meetings on behalf of concerned leaseholders, and I am deeply shocked by the attitude and approach of Islington Council.
s20 notices are being issued without full and proper surveys being carried out. In some cases, leaseholders are being told that new roofs are required when a simple drone survey could easily determine whether such major works are actually necessary.
Even more concerning is that unqualified individuals — some still in training — are being appointed as project managers for these costly schemes. Meanwhile, certain S20 notices are as much as five years out of date, yet the Council continues to push forward with the projects and expects leaseholders to pay tens of thousands of pounds.
At the monthly Islington Leaseholders Association (ILA) meetings, many residents are now expressing serious distress — including stress, anxiety, and depression — as a direct result of the Council’s handling of these issues. People feel ignored, overwhelmed, and financially trapped, with little to no meaningful support or communication from those responsible.
This situation is unacceptable and demands urgent scrutiny and reform. Leaseholders deserve transparency, proper oversight, and fair treatment — not outdated paperwork, questionable assessments, and indifference to the human cost of these failures.
After reading Cllr O’Halloran’s statement marking her first year as leader of the council I feel really overlooked and discriminated against, and I know that amongst the borough’s leaseholders I am far from alone in this.
Cllr O’Halloran says in her statement that housing is “a daily issue” for the residents she serves. As someone who has always lived on an Islington council estate I am a champion of social housing and welcome the buyback scheme as a way of increasing council housing stock, but only if the leaseholder genuinely wants to sell and is not being bullied or forced out of their homes by extortionate major works bills. These are sometimes as high as £100,000, amounts no average-waged person or OAP could ever dream of paying without incurring considerable debt.
An Islington Council employee has confirmed to me that most of the homes the council buys back are sold because the leaseholders can’t afford these huge bills.
Leaseholders are among the residents Cllr O’Halloran serves, and the number of them that have to leave the community they have lived in for years is surely a housing issue, yet she shows no empathy, understanding or even awareness of their plight.
She has the power to change policy and give the leaseholder a much longer period to pay the money back interest free, an improvement on the inadequate 5 years that now applies.
Council tenants pay for their share of major works with increased rents, but over a much longer time. Us leaseholders ask for fairness and equality, and a change of council policy to help us sleep at night.
The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) is part of the building safety legislation that was introduced in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster.
The government set this legislation to help protect leaseholders from the burden of remediation costs for historical safety defects.
The protection under the BSA only applies to “relevant defects “ in “relevant buildings”.
A relevant defect, broadly covers historical building safety defects, which cause a building safety risk from the spread of fire or collapse of the building or part of it, such as combustible cladding, or defective foundations, and must have created in the 30 years prior to the leaseholder protections coming into force, (meaning the defect had to be created from 28 June 1992 to 27 June 2022).
The definition of a relevant building is one that contains at least two dwellings and is at least 11 metres in height, or has at least 5 storeys, (whichever criteria is met first).
Leaseholders in 5 storey blocks may request a landlords certificate from LBI, however a certificate is only required if a landlord seeks to recover remediation costs relating to “relevant defects”, within the meaning of section 120 of the Building Safety Act 2022, from leaseholders in “relevant buildings”, defined in s117 of the Act.
If a property is in a “relevant building”, and any remediation costs relating to “relevant defects” are now not legally chargeable to the leaseholder of the property, given that any “relevant defects” would have arisen from “relevant works”, either undertaken or commissioned by the council.
Of course any other costs unrelated to “relevant defects” will still be chargeable, as per the terms of the lease.
I hope this helps. You can read further information here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-building-safety-act
For Leaseholders when dealing with Islington Council
Those of you who have regularly attend the Associations monthly meetings over the last 17 years,
ILA meet at St Marys after being excluded from the TownHall
will be aware of the importance of the following list of Do’s & Don’ts in dealing with Housing based problems. (Many of which whilst appearing to be very obvious, need to be repeated continuously to be effective) So for those who do not know, and are new to these meetings…
Please be aware that the ILA Never gives or Offers any form of LEGAL ADVICE, or Recommendation…If you require legal advice we suggest you consult a professional such as, a SOLICITOR, SURVEYOR, BUILDER, LEASE. Etc..
However…
The following list of Do’s and Don’ts are simply observations drawn from 25 years of personal experience whilst dealing with Islington Council, as Chairman of both the ILA & FITA…and as a LEASEHOLDER…!!!
1 / never TALK to the council…Verbal promises, assurances, sympathy, are very easily forgotten, disputed, ambiguous, devious…also, staff leave, Die. Etc…So, PUT IT ALL ON PAPER…Letters, or/and Emails. THEN YOU CAN RELY ON THE CONTENT AND CONTEXT OF THE INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM ANY “CONVERSATION” and insist on acknowledgement to all email traffic. Never send originals bills Etc, always send photocopy’s…
2 / PHOTO’s are invaluable, there is no arguing with photographic evidence. If you haven’t already done so…photograph ALL available parts of your property, in as much detail as possible, ideally showing before and after repairs.Etc. Courts and Tribunals love photos…(I have hundreds of my property, both internal and external, and from a selection of angles)…
3 / When contacting the Council, alway’s start at the VERY top…The ILA can supply a list of all senior Council officers if required. Complaints and answers always reach their logically effective level while traveling Down from the Top…rather than Up from the bottom…
4 / Remember The Council only charge you what they pay out on your behalf, SO they do not charge you…They Re-Charge you…and you are therefore entitled to demand to see ALL the bills that they pay on your behalf…
5 / Do not shout at Council staff…they are usually just doing as they are told, and do so to retain their jobs. If you experience problems, email a senior employee and stress your disappointment with the service..Remember write NOT talk…
6 / Having unsolvable problems with Council Work, Staff, Policy, Including complaints procedure. Next step is an Official Complaint. Make sure you state at the top of your email/letter in large letters…“OFFICIAL STAGE ONE COMPLAINT”
7 / Still unhappy/not satisfied with the Council’s response to your complaint? Contact the HOUSING OMBUDSMAN and escalate your complaint…It cost you NOTHING and usually expedites the councils response to you complaint…
8 / Un-satisfied with the results of your complaint?… a/ Contact the ILA and see if we can assist in solving your problem. b/ Contact the LEASE organisation, this is completely FREE advice supported by government funding… c/ Still unhappy, book a hearing and decision at the First Tier Tribunal, they do charge a small application fee, but you can attend with or without a solicitor or surveyor and simply represent yourself and present information and argument from anyone you please…d/ Lastly you may decide to take the council to Court…However, the main problem here is that the courts do have, and often do award costs…Remember when defending leaseholders challenges at court, the council are using council funds to pay for terribly expensive legal representation, SO THEIR COSTS NEVER SEEM TO BE A PROBLEm, for them…!!!
9 / I have frequently found that highlighting the councils short comings in the local press…WORKS WONDERS. Even better still the National press and magazine coverage tends to provoke an instant action on many subjects, as does a quick statement on one of the news Channels but Massive viral coverage on the WEB is best of all…
10 / The simple secret to solving a housing problem, I have discovered, is to make One Individual totally responsible for the issue. When such a person is selected the problem remains attached to them personally, and in order to be seen to be doing their job property, they process the problem until its resolved to the leaseholders satisfaction…
11 / Another piece of information which is of extreme importance, is that frequently leaseholders emails /letters appear to disappear into the “wide blue yonder”, the way to counteract this effect is to ask questions under the Freedom of Information Act…this will always ensure that your questions are answered…and you can rely on the veracity of the content.
12 / Finally, a real instant money saver…Check your new service charge bill against all previous bills…we have found that the Councils accountancy and billing leaves much to be desired, so check all the “job numbers” for repairs on the bill…as you may have been charged for the same repair repeatedly for any number of years…However, this form of over charging can be re-claimed retrospectively by simply informing the COUNCIL that you have been OVER CHARGED…So…Do this NOW…
As stated this SHORT LIST is simply to assist leaseholders in their dealings with Islington Council, but I am quite sure that it is applicable to most, if not all Councils…
Please stay connected and attend our meetings every month… If you would like to be kept updated on events effecting leaseholders we will need your email address…
REMEMBER…You ARE the Islington Leaseholders Association…One of 11000 Islington leaseholders…!!!
Start a file of Council documents correlated by date. Keep ALL documentation with and from the Council Find and become familiar with your existing lease Obtain a copy of the OLD law on Leasehold Obtain a copy of the NEW Leasehold Law Check your s20’s
Knowledge is Power So defend yourself by acquiring information by attending our meetings.
How I removed £1436.49 removed from my service charges.
Hi Brian,
I challenged poor workmanship on my Block using photos I had taken, 2 jobs were removed as a result and £1436.49 removed from the service charges and £93.79 refunded to all leaseholds in the block.
I have achieved many other refunds previously…. ALL achieved by attending the ILA meeting hosted by your good self and learning how!!!!!
