I've been issued a notice of intention of works in my

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I am sorry to read of the above. May I clarify, is this a section 20 notice of major works that has been served on you by the freeholder ( landlord or managing agent) please?

thank you. Do you dispute that one or more elements of the works proposed are required or alternatively, do you intend that any element of the works are the result of any failure to maintain on the part of the landlord?

thank you. There are a couple of approaches you can look at in terms of potentially challenging the notice that has been served upon you.

If you can show that the freeholder has failed to properly attend to its repairing obligations in the past for which you may require a surveyor's report which you may need to obtain either on your own initiative or jointly with one or more other residents in order to share costs, then you can make a claim against the landlord for breach of their lease obligations to keep in good repair the common elements and structure of the property.

Damages in this regard are calculated by reference to a notional market rent for the property. In addition, as a result of the decision in Simmons v Castle EWCA Civ 1288 you can also seek an additional 10% uplift on the above figure.

If you decide to issue proceedings against the landlord on the above basis, you can consider issuing proceedings under part eight of the civil procedure rules which deals with disputes in which there is no substantive dispute as regards fact:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n208-claim-form-cpr-part-8

alternatively, the following form if there is likely to be substantive dispute as regards facts:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n1-claim-form-cpr-part-7

if there is no substantive claim of failure to maintain on the part of the landlord but these are simply repairs that have become necessary due to the passing of time and general wear and tear that has occurred to the property over that period, then the above may not be possible but you may still be able to challenge the reasonableness of the amount that is being proposed in terms of the money being due. If for example the landlord is ignoring a cheaper alternative than the works proposed always using a contractor which is unduly costly as compared to other contractors.

if this is an approach you wish to consider, then in the first instance, you can raise concerns with the landlord and ultimately, you can bring an application to the first tier property tribunal to determine the reasonableness of the amounts proposed using the following form:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-leasehold-3-application-for-a-determination-of-liability-to-pay-and-reasonableness-of-service-charges

there is no reason not to proceed as you propose however I would comment not to be lulled into any false sense of security in terms of providing observations to the section 20 notice. The legislation does not require the landlord to do anything in relation to observations as such other than to " have regard" four observations that are made. Unfortunately as such, many managing agents adopt a relatively cynical approach in this respect whereby this to go through the motions of serving the required statutory notices with no intention of actually deviating from their decisions. As such, you may wish to regard the above as not being the sole line of defence or query with the landlord.

I hope the above is of some assistance but if you have any further questions, please revert to me.

I'm glad the above answers all your questions for now. If you have any follow up questions please revert to me.