Nottingham Council has been told to hand back more than £2,800 to landlord Mick Roberts (pictured) after a court ruled it had overcharged for lease extension surveys.

The authority instructed a valuer to survey his four flats in a council-owned block, charging £1,825 for each flat, even though the process took less than two hours, says Roberts, as the properties were only minutes away from each other, with two in Top Valley (pictured) and two in Bulwell.

“The council didn’t think of asking the valuer for a discount even though each flat had almost identical paperwork, because the landlord was paying,” he adds.

“The work was duplicated – my solicitor said it was ridiculous and shouldn’t have cost that much,” Roberts tells LandlordZONE. “Unfortunately, there’ll be lots of other landlords in the same position. There’s no continuity and staff keep changing at the council, so the new people don’t know what’s happened.”

Taxpayers

His solicitor, Massers, challenged the cost and gave the council the chance to pay back £1,300 but it decided to go to tribunal, costing Nottingham taxpayers even more money, says Roberts.

A First Tier Property Tribunal judge ruled that the council had not provided details of the time spent by the in-house surveyors’ team on the lease extensions nor any hourly rate or details of salary with on-costs of the relevant officers involved in the work and said there was a “lack of clarity as to the extent of their respective roles”.

He said the £500 fixed fees for surveyors’ costs were unreasonable and that no in-house surveyor’s costs were payable in relation to each property. The determined statutory fees payable for each property were reduced to £1,053.

Roberts adds that despite the ruling, his solicitor was forced to chase the council for payment at the threat of court action. It has now paid up.

LandlordZONE has contacted the council for comment.