The Leasehold Advisory Service Reviews 1.332

The advice received was very basic and not more than I could have found out through search online or chatGPT. The staff did not seem well trained or knowlegeable about leasehold, beyond the basics. The conduct of the Chair (Martin Boyd) towards me personally has been apalling and think there is a massive conflict of interest in him being head of LAS (which is essentially a QUANGO) and being a director of LKP, an organisation supposedly independent of government, campaigning for leaseholders' rights/leaseholder reform but which also acts as 'secretariat for the group of MPs who support leasehold reform.

I requested advice in written format from this organisation initially on the 3rd March 26, previously I had always received email notification of this, but not this time.
As it had been a while since my last correspondence and the organisation has changed substantially with Martin Boyd being appointed in October 2023 as chair, a position he also held with Leasehold Knowledge Partnership (LKP), with the statement he had been appointed by the government to drive forward leasehold reforms, it appears this has failed and any support for struggling leaseholders/RMC directors has infact diminished under his watch.
I hastened this request again on the 13th March 26 and again received no acknowledgement, so again I hastened this request on the 18th March 26 which again had the same disappointing result. This was followed up with a telephone call shortly afterwards where I received an apology and assurances this would be dealt with, however, unfortunately it is now approaching 6 weeks from my original request and still no advice received.
IMO it's time these organisations either delivered or were closed down for good and the government introduced the full regulation of managing agents, which is well overdue and would end leaseholders being continually ripped off by those appointed to provide a service to them.

After frustrating emails I then received very useful information - excellent service!

A few years ago I spoke to someone on the advice line who was enthusiastic and gave me some helpful suggestions with a leasehold problem.

The last couple of times I rang for advice the advisor was unenthuaistic, had an unfriendly dull tone and just kept on hiding behing the statement, 'please consult your lease' to see what it says. My impression was that none of them really cared about the lease problems I had.

Impossibly long response time to phone and email queries. Inaccurate, incomplete and misleading information supplied. Chairman’s annual report making commitments and promises but with no follow up action.

I contacted them with my query online on 31st August 2025. On 13th September I received an email advising me the query would be allocated to an advisor. It’s now 11th October and I’ve heard nothing.

I understand that there is not endless funding and very much feel that I got an appointment in good time and was called when I was told I would be.
The person I spoke to was polite and respectful but the problem the LAS have is that they can only repeat the law, and the law doesn't take the needs of leaseholders into account at all.

What we need as leaseholders is an advocacy service but no government is going to fund that so the leasehold advisory service sits uncomfortably in the role of reinforcing government legislation by virtue of the fact that that is all it can do.

Unfair to criticise staff who are working hard in difficult circumstances but difficult to be fair when you keep getting clobbered with demands for more and more money that you don't have due to badly thought out government legislation which the leasehold advisory service can only keep parroting at you.

When you're facing debts you can't pay and potential homelessness due to being outside the conditions of your lease - which have been retrospectively changed- eg fire door legislation - just having the legislation repeated again and again is not what you want to hear... and so the downward spiral continues 🥴

They have significantly deteriorated. Recently I asked for advice on Right to Manage claims on two occasions. You have to wait about 2 weeks for a phone appointment. I was disappointed to find on both occasions the advisor only had sketchy understanding of the process.The service has very little relevance today other than perhaps consult their website if you need an overview of some aspects of leasehold properties.

Absolute waste of time. Really unhelpful and not knowledgeable at all. Initially filled in an email enquiry and the reply was very long and complicated, no effort made to make it more understandable or digestible, which is surely the whole point of the service, it was just information from Google. Then waited for a telephone appointment which was even worse, the person initially pretended they had no prior knowledge of our case (though our case reference was supplied) then said they were the person who had sent the reply! In the case of the telephone appointment I’d go as far as to say we were actually given bad and incorrect advice rather than just no advice, which could potentially be so damaging. The situations that lead you to seek advice from this service are generally by their nature stressful and unpleasant, then you wait around with some hope you’ll get useful advice and you don’t, it’s really upsetting. Please don’t waste your time waiting for this service to help you out, seek proper professional advice elsewhere where possible, I realise that may be costly but this service is free for a reason.

Gave the wrong information on leasehold and whether permission is needed from the freeholder for an extension when there is nothing in the deeds requiring it. How can they give advice when they can't be bothered to learn the law and requirements around the advice they give. I've now found another tax funded waste of space to add to the list.

Edit: as this "advisory" service is probably busy copying and pasting more text, the landlord can not charge for consent when the lease does not require it, and the lease didn't, the contract didn't even hint at requiring consent for any type of modification to the dwelling... They still told us to pay and it wasn't a small amount. I should set up my own advisory service.

Kemi is incredibly helpful. I've spoken to her in the past, and she was always given me clear and sound advice. I am thankful to have her help! Much appreciated!!

It took a bit long to receive a response (1 month), but it is a free service so I can't complain! Moreover, the response has been very professional and helpful, so I totally recommend this service. Thanks again

Very poor, flaky, not useful advice

Completed the online form prior to being given a telephone appointment so they had all the info. Was Then given a specific time slot where they would contact me. They were late so I missed the call. Then waited for 2 weeks to get another appointment. During the phone call with an extremely hostile operator when I struggled to get a chance to speak at all, I was told they couldn't advise on the matter and that the issue raised had nothing to do with the service they offered. Extremely unhelpful and very disappointing.

Contacted these guys on a fairly urgent matter and was told I could have a telephone appointment in 3.5 weeks' time or a written response in 10 working days. The receptionist, while polite, was cold, distant and utterly disinterested. Hopefully when the new Leaseholders' bill comes in, it contains a proposal to close this "service" down and save significant taxpayers'money!

Utterly useless.

Spoke to an advisor really hoping for some guidance around a freeholder issue I'm having. Unfortunately the person couldn't have been less helpful. Was overly abrupt to the point of being hostile and responded to everything with "I don't know".

A complete waste of time. Just made the situation more stressful and frustrating than it was before I'd made the call. Really disappointing.

The advisor actually gave wrong information, later this was confirmed by my solicitor. Very unhelpful, and a bit defensive when I asked questions which clearly she couldn't answer properly. I agree with others who have said the advisor just read out tracts of information and have no real knowledge of leasehold problems or law. It's clearly a service which purely exists to give the impression that there is a service.

Asked several questions by e mail all of which were replied to individually in their reply superbly. Took a few days for the response to come back but definitely worth waiting for. I was surprised as my last questions to them about 6 years ago were either misunderstood or answered dismissively so was over the moon this time that improvement. had come my way

Unhelpful , unknowable and unpleasant in their manner on the phone . I most definitely got the feeling they had absolutely no interest in why I was phoning . I was polite and friendly when phoning but I was given a cold and negative response . They call themselves an advisory service . I say they need investigating .

In the past the advisors were great. They obviously had a full understanding of leasehold law and matters generally and were able to answer questions clearly and left me with a much better understanding of any issue. More recently - I have phoned twice in the past six months. One advisor had poor English and simply read out tracts of information without explaining the implications. The lady I spoke with today didn't leave me feeling confident in her suggestions and I felt I knew more about the subject than her. The quality of their advisors had dropped sharply. Such a shame. This used to be a brilliant service