A residential major works project has several connected records: the lease and service-charge position, the consultation file, the tender package and the building contract. Contract administration addresses the construction agreement; it does not by itself establish that leaseholder consultation was valid or that every cost is recoverable. This guide concentrates on the handovers between those workstreams. It complements the existing Section 20 explainer rather than replacing legal advice on the lease, consultation procedure or a disputed service charge.
Allocate the consultation and construction roles
Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 concerns consultation and the extent to which relevant costs can be recovered through service charges where its requirements apply. LEASE explains the consultation process and leaseholders' opportunities to respond. Those responsibilities need to be addressed alongside, rather than assumed to sit inside, a contract administrator's construction-stage appointment.
Prepare a responsibility schedule naming who checks the leases, selects the consultation procedure, prepares and serves notices, answers observations and retains service evidence. Separately identify who prepares the works specification, evaluates tenders and administers the building contract. If one organisation performs several roles, keep the deliverables and authority distinguishable. Ask who coordinates the interfaces and who refers a legal question to the appropriate adviser.
Establish why the work is proposed
Collect the condition evidence and explain the problem the proposed works are intended to address. Identify investigations still needed before a repair specification can be settled. Separate observed conditions, proposed solutions and decisions still awaiting advice. That gives the client team a clearer basis for briefing both the technical consultant and the person managing consultation.
Avoid treating a preliminary budget or contractor suggestion as a complete specification. Ask how the proposed extent of work has been established and which alternatives were considered. Keep the relevant survey, drawings and decision record together. Where opening-up is needed, identify how the findings will be assessed and how any resulting change to the proposed package will be considered before a final instruction is given.
Coordinate the consultation file with the tender package
Make it possible to trace the scope described to leaseholders into the documents issued for pricing. Use dated revisions and record what changed between stages. Ask the consultation lead to confirm the applicable procedure and the information needed at each point. Do not assume that a generic set of notices is suitable for every arrangement, including works under an existing qualifying long-term agreement.
For tender preparation, see procurement and tendering. Give bidders a consistent package and a controlled route for clarifications. Keep questions, answers and revised information available for the tender comparison. If a clarification materially changes the proposed work, refer that change back to the consultation lead instead of treating it solely as a pricing adjustment between the consultant and contractor.
Preserve observations and reasons for decisions
Keep leaseholder observations in an indexed record, linked to the response and any resulting technical action. Distinguish a question about why the work is necessary from one about the estimate, access arrangements or service-charge allocation. Route each question to the person who can answer it, and record when the response is complete. Do not let consultation correspondence disappear into the contractor's general site inbox.
When comparing tenders, show qualifications, omissions and scope differences rather than only totals. Record the basis of the client's selection and identify the person responsible for the applicable consultation response or reasons notice. Ask the consultation adviser to confirm what must be communicated and when. The administrator's construction records should be able to refer back to that procurement decision without reconstructing it from memory.
Agree the contract administration brief before work starts
Confirm the building contract, parties, edition and amendments, together with the named administrator and their authority. Record who can approve expenditure for the client and how proposed changes are referred for a decision. Agree the reporting recipients and the process for circulating information to residents. A residents' update and a contractual instruction perform different jobs and should be identifiable as separate communications.
Prepare a mobilisation checklist covering the executed documents, information still outstanding, access arrangements, meeting records and payment timetable. Ask the managing agent to identify occupied-building requirements that must be reflected in the works package. Use the contract administration service scope to distinguish those agreed duties from other appointments, including continuous site observation or specialist design services.
Keep changes visible to both workstreams
During the works, record proposed changes with their reason, scope, estimated implications and approval status. Ask the administrator what the building contract requires before an instruction is issued. At the same time, ask the consultation and lease advisers whether the proposed change has implications for consultation, cost recovery or resident communications. One assessment should not be treated as evidence that the other has been completed.
For urgent circumstances, retain the condition evidence, advice received and reasons for the action proposed. Section 20ZA provides a route for tribunal dispensation where its requirements are met; urgency should not be treated as automatic dispensation. Obtain specific advice about the available procedure. Avoid promising that a later application will resolve every consultation or recovery issue, and keep protective work distinguishable from the wider programme being considered.
Separate contractor payment from leaseholder recovery
A payment assessment under the building contract does not itself answer whether a particular sum is recoverable from leaseholders. The lease and statutory service-charge rules must be considered separately. Section 19 addresses reasonably incurred costs and a reasonable standard for services or works. Consultation is therefore one part of the legal position, not a universal approval of the resulting charge.
Maintain the contractor payment register and the service-charge accounting record as distinct records with clear cross-references. For each change, preserve its instruction, assessment and approval history so the managing agent can explain the final expenditure. Read the payment-documents guide for the construction payment side, and ask a leasehold adviser about disputed recoverability or allocation.
Close the project with an accessible evidence file
At handover, assemble the issued completion records, remaining defect actions, final information and cost-reconciliation documents. Keep the consultation notices, service records, observations, responses and tender decision alongside the technical file. Identify who retains the master copies and how later managers can access them. Do not describe unresolved defects or financial questions as closed simply because the main contractor has left site.
HCS's Section 20 and major works consultancy describes support to scope for an individual instruction. The existing Section 20 guide covers the consultation topic in more detail. HCS cannot act as independent contract administrator where HCS is the contractor. Confirm the professional appointments and the legal advice needed before treating a project checklist as authority to proceed.