Section 20B Notice (Historic Costs)

On September 29, 2025, residents received a Section 20B notice quoting estimated costs of £1,212,000 for the period of 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a landlord cannot charge leaseholders for costs incurred more than 18 months ago. To get around this rule when they are disorganised and haven't finalised their accounts, landlords issue a "Section 20B Notice." It acts as a legal placeholder, reserving their right to charge us later.

The Absurdity of the Numbers

When we break down the £1,212,000 figure across Odyssey House's approximately 40 units over the 12-month period, it equates to:

£2,525 per month per flat

This is for a year where the building received:

Routine cleaning (200 sq/m of corridors)
Basic maintenance
A broken front door intercom (since August)
A broken fire door on Floor 2 (propped open for over a year)

Section 19 Reasonableness Challenge

Under Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, service charges must be "reasonable." £2,525/month for basic maintenance on a 2012-build block with no visible major works is demonstrably unreasonable.

Formal Challenge & Response

On 20 January 2026, as part of the QLTA consultation response (see the Section 20 Documentation for the full email thread), a formal challenge was submitted to Southern Housing regarding this notice. We demanded a justification of costs incurred, the current status of the finalised accounts, and clarification on whether this relates to the upcoming 10-year contract.

Southern's "Response"

Southern Housing completely sidestepped the challenge. In their official reply on January 23, 2026, Easton Davis stated:

"You have raised concerns regarding Section 20B, and as this does not relate to what we are consulting on it will not be addressed within our observation response... I will arrange for the matters regarding Section 20B to be addressed by our Service Charge team separately."

The result? Our questions remain unanswered while they preserve their right to bill us later.

The 18-Month Deadline

Under Section 20B, Southern Housing has until September 2026 (18 months from the latest cost date of March 31, 2025) to finalise these accounts and demand payment. The notice they sent merely preserves their right to do so.

By executing Right to Manage (RTM) before the accounts are finalised, our newly formed RTM company will demand full itemisation before any payment is made, allowing us to challenge unreasonable charges directly at the management level.

Tribunal Defence Draft

If Southern Housing attempts to convert this £1.2M notice into a concrete demand for payment, the following points will form the basis of our FTT Form Leasehold 1 application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

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1. Section 20B Compliance

We demand a full ledger of when these £1.2M costs were actually "incurred." Costs incurred more than 18 months before a demand for payment are not recoverable if no 20B notice was served within 6 months of that specific cost.

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2. Standard of Service

The £1.2M charge covers a period where the Floor 2 fire door was non-compliant, security systems were failing, and grounds maintenance fees were billed at 3x market rates. We challenge the "reasonableness" under Section 19.

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3. Orders Requested

We will request a determination of unreasonableness under Section 19, and a Section 20C order preventing the Respondent from passing their legal costs for the tribunal onto residents through the service charge.