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Leaseholders' Rights Bill

My right hon. Friend has been most generous in engaging in debate, and I hope that our interventions will be constructive. All that she has said is absolutely right, and I know that the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) and I accept that these provisions exist in the legislation. However, let me cite a case as an example. There is a block of flats in my constituency whose windows had needed doing for many years. Eventually, one leaseholder got so fed up with their not being done that he paid a private contractor to do the work. A year later, the landlord decided to do all the work, but then billed that leaseholder for fitting new windows even though he had already paid to have the work done the year before. The leaseholder took the landlord to a leasehold valuation tribunal. The Minister is right to say that LVTs are supposed to be a quick and effective means of getting justice without having to go to court, but the landlord turned up with five QCs. The leaseholder was blown out of the water—in legal terms—and ended up with a bill for the landlord's legal costs for the five QCs on top of the bill for the windows. The LVTs, which were supposed to provide a quick and easy means of redress, are not working, and we need to address that.