Section 20 consultation

We are writing to you to let you know of our intention to enter into what is known as a “qualifying long term agreement”. This is any agreement for period of longer than a year under which you’ll be obliged to pay more than £100 per year through your service charge, under the terms of your shared ownership lease. As you’re a shared owner or tenant, we’re required to consult with you pursuant to our obligations under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

Under the terms of your shared ownership lease, we can instruct a “management provider” to undertake management functions at the scheme where your home is. These management functions include customer services and engagement, management of tenancies and leases, estate management, repair works (where appropriate) and managing rent and service charge collection. We want to be able to change the management provider from the current one you have now in case we need to – this might happen because a management provider is dropping out from providing services and we want to ensure that we can consistently provide those services without any impact on you. Because we’re considering introducing some new management providers that we haven’t worked with before, we’re consulting with you about this potential change.

You should read the letter we’ve sent with this FAQ page which is called the “Notice of Intention”. It’s a formal document that sets what we’re proposing to do and why.

If you don’t have anything to say about the Notice, you don’t need to do anything.

If you do have something to say or want to tell us what you think, you can write to our lawyers who are working with us on this project, by email to LGAHs20@trowers.com or by post to Trowers & Hamlins LLP, for the attention of Meadow O’Connor, 55 Princess Street, Manchester, M2 4EW.

Any observations and nominations need to be received by us by no later than 28th October 2025.

Please see our response to the question “What do I need to do?” above, which sets out how you can let us know what you think about the consultation.

This will be worked out as part of the consultation, but we anticipate that the agreement will start at some point in 2026 and run until around October 2029.

The cost under the agreement will be determined as part of this consultation, and we’ll let you know when it has been worked out.

This consultation isn’t about doing major works – its about entering into an agreement with new management providers who will be responsible for running the scheme where your home is situated, as well as other schemes. If we’re going to undertake any major works, we’ll write to you separately to set out the details, including the costs.

During the 30-day period following us sending out the Notice of Intention, shared owners and tenants can write to us to make observations and nominate potential contractors. Once this time passes, we’ll write again to let you know our responses to any observations and nominations in what is called a “Notice of Proposals”. Shared owners and tenants will again be able to give observations on that. We’ll then write to you a third time setting out our notice of entering into an agreement or agreements, with details about these.

We’re sorry to hear that you feel you need to complain. Please write to your management provider directly in the first instance and progress through their complaints process. If this is exhausted and you’re still not satisfied, they can tell you what you can do next. Alternatively, you can use our complaints form.