Council loses appeal court battle to charge flat owner for improvements

A city council that charged the leaseholder of a flat for improvement works to their block despite it being funded by a community energy grant has lost a court battle.

 

Sheffield City Council challenged an earlier tribunal decision in the Court of Appeal which ruled it could not bill the leaseholder for the cost of the work that had been covered by the grant, as it amounted to "double recovery". 

 

The court heard that the council had overhauled blocks on two social housing estates, and had struck an £2.9m agreement with NPower to fund some of the improvements under the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP). 

 

The upper tribunal in Sheffield Cc v Oliver 2017 EWCA Civ 225 ruled that CESP funding should be passed on to leaseholders as a set off against their service charge contributions. 

 

Sheffield City Council appealed against the decision, however it was upheld by the Court of Appeal.