This is written from the operator’s side of the table. We run multi-unit blocks in Manchester, so the consultation process is something we plan around rather than read about. It is a practical guide, not legal advice, and on anything contentious you want a solicitor rather than a property manager.
What a Section 20 notice actually is
Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, as amended by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, requires a landlord to consult leaseholders before spending their money above a certain level.
The word that trips people up is consultation. It is not a vote. Leaseholders cannot block the work, and a landlord who runs the process properly and then proceeds has done nothing wrong. What the process does is force the spending into the open early enough for leaseholders to nominate contractors, see the estimates and make observations the landlord must then have regard to.
Get it wrong and the consequence is financial, not procedural.
The two thresholds, and the thing everyone gets wrong
There are two triggers, and both are per leaseholder, not per building. That single point causes more trouble than the rest of the regime combined.
| Trigger | Threshold | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying works | More than £250 for any one leaseholder | One-off works: roof, lifts, windows, external decoration |
| Qualifying long-term agreement | More than £100 for any one leaseholder in any year | Any contract running more than 12 months |
A £9,000 roof repair across a twelve-flat block is £750 a leaseholder. That consults. The same £9,000 across forty flats is £225 each, and it does not.
The long-term agreement threshold is the one that catches people out, because £100 a year is almost nothing. A cleaning contract, a lift maintenance agreement, a managing agent appointment or a buildings insurance arrangement running beyond twelve months will clear £100 per leaseholder in most blocks without anyone thinking of it as major works.
Neither figure has been uprated since the 2003 regulations. They were modest then. Two decades of inflation later they catch almost everything.
The three stages
For qualifying works the process runs in stages, each with a minimum 30-day response window.
Notice of Intention. You describe the works, explain why they are necessary, and invite observations. Leaseholders may nominate a contractor they want you to approach. Thirty days.
Statement of Estimates. You obtain estimates, including from any contractor properly nominated, and circulate them with a summary of the observations you received and your response to them. Thirty days.
Notice of Reasons. Required where you do not choose the lowest estimate or a leaseholder-nominated contractor. You set out why within 21 days of awarding the contract.
Qualifying long-term agreements follow a similar shape, with a notice of intention and a notice of proposals.
Add the time to obtain estimates between stages and a realistic planning assumption is two to three months before work starts. Build that into the programme rather than discovering it when something fails.
What happens if you skip it
Recovery is capped at the threshold. Not reduced, not challengeable: capped.
Spend £60,000 on a roof across twelve flats without consulting and you can recover £250 from each leaseholder. That is £3,000 against a £60,000 bill. The remaining £57,000 sits with the landlord.
The escape route is dispensation from the First-tier Tribunal. The leading case is Daejan Investments Ltd v Benson, where the Supreme Court held that the real question is whether leaseholders suffered actual prejudice because of the failure, rather than whether the landlord followed every step. That has made dispensation more attainable than it once was, but it is a remedy for emergencies and honest mistakes. It is not a shortcut, it costs time and fees, and tribunals can attach conditions.
Where it actually goes wrong
In our experience the failures are almost never legal. Nobody decides to ignore Section 20. What happens is more mundane.
Nobody owns the calendar. Consultation has to start before the spend is committed. By the time a lift has failed or a roof is leaking into a top-floor flat, the two to three months do not exist. The decision gets made under pressure and the consultation gets done badly or not at all.
The long-term agreement threshold is missed. Everyone watches for major works. Few people check whether the new cleaning contract crosses £100 a leaseholder across its term.
Nobody is sure who holds the records. This is the big one, and it is the same weakness we see across block management generally. An owner, a managing agent and a building management company may each hold part of the file. Each assumes another has it. When a leaseholder challenges a service charge, the question is not whether consultation happened but whether you can evidence it, and three years later the person who ran it has often moved on.
Works get split. Dividing a programme into pieces that each fall under £250 does not work. A tribunal will look at whether the works were in substance one set of works, and artificial separation tends to be treated as exactly that.
What to do before you need it
A property-by-property record showing which documents exist, where they are held, when each renewal falls, and a named person responsible for each action. That is the same discipline we set out in our note on short-let regulation and licensing, and for the same reason: the work is useful whatever the regime turns out to require.
For blocks specifically, three habits prevent almost all of it. Check every contract over twelve months against the £100 figure before signing. Start the clock the moment a major item appears on the planned maintenance schedule rather than when it fails. And keep the consultation file in one place that survives a change of agent.
Where this sits with us
We run blocks as a single coordinated operation rather than unit by unit, which is largely a records and accountability discipline. Our page on block management sets out what good looks like, property management for blocks of flats covers how we handle multi-unit buildings, and if the question is money rather than process, what block management should cost covers the service charge side. Freeholders specifically may want block management for freeholders.
None of the above is legal advice. The thresholds and stages are set by the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003, and the position differs in Wales. On a live dispute or anything approaching a tribunal, take proper advice.