Major works costs

Long-term agreements

A ‘qualifying long term agreement’ is a contract between Southwark and an external contractor to provide goods, services, or works to a building or estate.

Typical examples of long-term agreements include:

• agreements affecting the building generally (eg lifts, entry-phone systems, waste management)
• cleaning and gardening services
• insurance
• utilities such as electricity and heating for the common parts

If we want to enter into an agreement with a contractor that will last for more than 12 months and the cost to anyone leaseholder/freeholder will be more than £100, we need to consult you. The tenders that are made available to leaseholders are general rates which don’t relate to specific work.

We must first send you a ‘Notice of Intention’ which will describe the work we are planning to do and why it is needed. You will have 30 days to send us your comments on the works.

We will then write to you with a “Notice of Proposal” (Section 20 notice), giving details of the works, allowing you a further period of 30 days once again to send us your comments on the proposed works.

The consultation for long term agreements follows a similar process as that for major works.

Read the consultation requirements for long term agreements

Major works under long term agreements

As well as being committed to improving the quality of our housing stock, we are also committed to improving the quality of service we provide during our major works programmes. As a result, we have agreed 25 standards, written with the help of Southwark residents who have first-hand experience of major works.

These standards apply to everyone involved in major works on your home, whether they work for the council or one of our contractors.

If we need to carry out major works under a long-term agreement and the cost to anyone leaseholder/freeholder will be more than £250, we need to consult you before the works are carried out. This is done by issuing a Section 20 notice.

The consultation rules for qualifying work are set out in Schedule 3 and Schedule 4 of the 2003 service charge regulations.

In circumstances where you have already been consulted on the identity of the contractor to be appointed, at this stage you would ll not be able to recommend another contractor. However, before the works start we will invite you to a meeting to discuss the works, payment options and to introduce the contractor.

When the contractor is on-site, we will give you reasonable notice of any need to access your property and we will make sure residents are kept up to date with the progress of the works, including sending out regular newsletters.

At scheme completion, the council or the contractor will ask the residents to complete customer satisfaction surveys to ensure we capture feedback to help us improve our service.

The Leasehold Advisory Service has more information on long-term agreements.

Page last updated: 21 February 2022