Leaseholder complaints have stopped being a background irritation for managing agents and RMC directors — they are now a measurable, regulated part of the job. Property Redress recorded 4,220 complaints against member agents in 2025, up 41% on the year before, while the Property Ombudsman logged a 67% year-on-year jump in leasehold enquiries. The volume is rising faster than most agents' processes were built to handle.
At the same time, the rules changed. The RICS Service Charge Residential Management Code — updated for the first time since 2016 and in force from 7 April 2026 — has been elevated from voluntary guidance to a mandatory professional standard, with complaints handling named explicitly as one of the areas it governs. For RICS-regulated agents, a weak complaints process is no longer just a service issue. It is a compliance one.
This guide sets out where complaints actually come from, what a defensible complaints process looks like under the new Code, and the communication habits that stop most disputes from escalating in the first place.
Where Leaseholder Complaints Actually Come From
Government and industry research consistently point to the same handful of root causes. According to the government's own consultation on leaseholder protections, the most common complaint is that leaseholders are not given enough information — or clear enough information — to understand what they are being charged for. Propertymark and the Property Ombudsman point to the same pattern from the agent's side: complaints escalate fastest where communication is inconsistent, agreements and fees are unclear, or record-keeping is poor enough that an agent can't quickly show what happened and when.
The Five Most Common Complaint Categories
| Category | What Drives It |
|---|---|
| Service charge transparency | Charges that aren't itemised clearly, or billed without enough supporting detail — the single largest source of leaseholder dissatisfaction |
| Communication and responsiveness | Enquiries and repair requests going unacknowledged, or updates arriving too late to feel useful |
| Major works and Section 20 | Leaseholders feeling under-consulted or blindsided by the scale of a bill, even where the process was technically followed |
| Repairs and maintenance delays | Reactive-only maintenance regimes where the same failures recur without a visible fix |
| Safety and disrepair concerns | Damp, mould, fire door faults or electrical issues left unresolved — these can escalate beyond the agent to environmental health or the regulator |
On major works specifically, most escalations are avoidable with earlier, plainer communication — see our guide to Section 20 consultations for London managing agents and RMCs.
What Changed in 2026: Complaints Handling Is Now a Standard, Not a Suggestion
The 4th edition of the RICS Service Charge Residential Management Code, effective 7 April 2026, is the first update to the Code since 2016 — and the first time it has been elevated from a guidance note to a mandatory professional standard for RICS members. It can now be relied on as evidence before courts and tribunals, and it explicitly covers complaints handling alongside budgeting, procurement, consultation and risk management.
Separately, The Property Institute already requires every member firm to have a written complaints procedure, publicised to leaseholders — ideally with the relevant ombudsman's details displayed alongside it, so residents know where to escalate if the agent's own process doesn't resolve things. Membership of a redress scheme (The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme) has been a legal requirement for agents for some time; what's changed is how seriously that process is now expected to be documented and followed.
For managing agents and RMC directors, the practical takeaway is that a complaints process is no longer just good customer service — it's part of what a regulator, tribunal, or professional body will look at if a dispute escalates.
A Response Protocol That Holds Up Under Scrutiny
The agents who handle complaints well tend to work to a fixed, published timeline rather than responding case-by-case. A structure that holds up well in practice:
| Stage | Timeframe | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledge | Within 24 hours | Confirm receipt, log the complaint, assign an owner |
| Investigate | Within 3 working days | Establish the facts, check records, identify what (if anything) went wrong |
| Resolve or update | Within 10 working days | Provide a resolution, or a clear update with a revised timeline if more time is needed |
For context, Property Redress's own average resolution time across formal disputes was 34 days in 2025 — down from 39 the year before, with 53% resolved at an early stage before a full investigation was needed. The lesson from that trend: complaints resolved early, with a clear paper trail, rarely need to go further. Complaints that drag without acknowledgement are the ones that end up at the ombudsman or the First-tier Tribunal.
Reviewing your complaints process?
Alban Holloway supports London managing agents and RMCs with documented maintenance programmes that reduce the reactive failures behind most complaints — and give you the paper trail to show it.
Improve Your Block Management with Professional MaintenanceProactive Communication: The Cheapest Way to Reduce Complaint Volume
Propertymark's guidance, echoed across the sector's redress bodies, is consistent: clear, proactive communication, transparent agreements and fees, and robust record-keeping are the three habits most likely to stop a complaint escalating into a formal dispute. In practice, for a London block that means:
- Regular, scheduled updates — email newsletters or portal updates on a fixed cadence, not only when something goes wrong
- A resident portal or clear single point of contact — so leaseholders aren't guessing who to email or how long to wait
- Itemised, plain-language service charge statements — the single biggest driver of dissatisfaction is charges leaseholders don't understand, not necessarily charges they disagree with
- Documented major works communication — going beyond the legal minimum for Section 20 consultation to explain timing and cost drivers in plain terms
- A visible, published complaints procedure — with the redress scheme clearly signposted, as required for TPI and RICS-regulated agents
Underneath most of this sits maintenance quality. A block on a documented, planned maintenance schedule generates fewer of the reactive failures — the broken lift, the recurring leak, the missed repair — that make up a large share of complaint volume in the first place. For more on building that kind of schedule, see our PPM schedule guide for block management in London.
Improve Your Block Management with Professional Maintenance
Alban Holloway Ltd works with London managing agents and RMCs on documented, planned maintenance programmes that reduce reactive failures and support a defensible complaints process.
Alban Holloway Ltd is a London-based property services company specialising in property maintenance, PPM programmes, block management support, Section 20 major works, and EPC compliance across London.