Following on from the news that LEASE (the Leasehold Advisory Service – a quango) had not been granted funding to continue to advise the public on commonhold issues (see our note, here), comes the news that it is to stop offering mediation services in service charge disputes (again, one presumes, for lack of funding). The announcement is here.
Not entirely surprising. Sad though it is to say this, I suspect that the writing is on the wall for LEASE in general. The approach of the Tory-led government to quangos is, in general terms, to abolish them where they perform a service that the private sector could perform. Advise about service charge disputes, collective enfranchisement, etc, does rather sound like something that the private sector already offers via your friendly neighbourhood soliticitor…
To be fair though, how many commonhold properties are there really? My impression was that they were rarer than hen’s teeth…
I think it’s about 12. So, I agree – commonhold isn’t really what I’m particularly worried about.
I am not the JS who posted above -the issue is the loss of mediation in service charge disputes . It seems to be rather counter productive for this service to lose funding when the Tory led government is so keen for mediation to replace litigation elsewhere.
Indeed.
On the JS duplication, I think it fair to point out to the previous JS that this JS was JS here first, and while the newcomer JS is very welcome to continue commenting, could they pick another monicker to do it under to avoid confusion with the already resident JS. Ta.
JS (North) and JS (Unknown Location)?
is that ‘J’ qua J or has JS (#2) helpfully shortened their tag?
yours in clarity
sw
J = me = member of the NL writing team
JS & JS #2 = other people!
I think we need an alphanumeric system, A1 to Z9, assigned in strict date and time order. Naturally, I am A1.
Imagine the bragging rights of having a handle in the prestigious A1 to Z1 range! (Non-transferable, of course. We don’t want a black market emerging .)
Bagsy Ω∞.