Qualifying Works and the £250 Threshold Explained

What the £250 and £100 thresholds actually are

The statutory consultation thresholds are £250, including VAT, for qualifying works, and £100, including VAT, per leaseholder in any accounting period for a qualifying long-term agreement - generally an agreement entered into by or on behalf of the landlord or a superior landlord for a term of more than 12 months, subject to statutory exclusions. If any one leaseholder would contribute more than the relevant amount, the landlord will normally have to follow the statutory consultation requirements.

These thresholds come from the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003 themselves - they’re statutory figures, not something LEASE (the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service) invented. Official guidance, including LEASE’s, explains these thresholds accurately, but the Act and Regulations are their legal source. That said, they aren’t absolute limits on what you may ultimately have to pay: a landlord who didn’t comply with the consultation requirements can apply for dispensation.

Why these aren’t a hard cap on what you can be charged

If a landlord fails to comply with the applicable consultation requirements, the amount it can normally recover is limited to £250 per leaseholder for qualifying works, or £100 per leaseholder in an accounting period for a qualifying long-term agreement. However, the landlord can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for dispensation from some or all of the consultation requirements, and if dispensation is granted, it may be able to recover more than those amounts. Our dispensation applications guide covers exactly how tribunals approach this, and why the focus is generally on whether the leaseholders suffered relevant prejudice as a result of the failure, not simply on the failure itself.

What’s actually worth checking

• Whether the total cost, per leaseholder, genuinely sits above the statutory thresholds
• Whether the works were bundled together in a way that affects how the threshold is applied
• Whether the required consultation took place before the landlord committed to or began the works - if the works were urgent, whether the landlord has applied, or intends to apply, for dispensation
• Whether you were given a genuine opportunity to comment and, where nomination rights applied, to nominate a contractor

See our full breakdown of the consultation process, stage by stage for what’s normally expected at each point.

Qualifying long-term agreements are assessed differently

The £100-per-leaseholder, per-accounting-period figure applies to ongoing contracts - lift maintenance, cleaning, gardening, buildings insurance arranged through a broker relationship, and similar - rather than one-off projects. Because these run for years, even a modest annual figure can add up to a consultation requirement that’s easy to miss if you’re only thinking about one-off works bills.

Putting the figures in context for your own bill

Knowing the statutory thresholds is a starting point, not a conclusion. What matters is whether your own demand, set against your own documents, shows consultation was expected and whether it happened the way it’s normally expected to. That’s exactly the kind of issue-by-issue check a Defence Pack builds for your specific notice and demand.