Neighbours mention a Section 22 notice. Does a rating 3 on the communal roof start that notice?

What is the fuller explanation?

People mix this up with ordinary consultation about works, and with Right to Manage, which does not require anyone to prove the landlord managed badly. Section 22 is the prior notice on the other route: leaseholders who want a tribunal to appoint a manager have to tell the landlord and give them a chance to put the management right, and they have to show the management was bad. A survey commissioned by one buyer is not that notice. It is not served on the landlord by being emailed around a residents' chat, and a condition rating is not the proof the tribunal would be asked to accept.

If neighbours are serious, they need advice on the notice, the evidence and the tribunal, not a sentence lifted from your PDF. You can show them what the surveyor saw on the roof as a description of the building. You should not let them file your report as if you had brought the claim. Your solicitor should also say whether any notice has actually been served, because gossip about a notice is not the notice. Nothing in the inspection starts the clock.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Does a roof rating prove bad management? It should not be read that way.
• Were you instructed to serve any notice on the landlord?
• Which sentences are only condition, if neighbours want to talk about a manager?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Ask the solicitor whether any Section 22 notice has actually been served.
2. Do not let neighbours file your survey as their application.
3. Keep Right to Manage and a tribunal manager as two different routes.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

Which pages should you read next?

• You want to challenge a service charge. Is the surveyor the person who files that challenge?
• The pack says the landlord is recovering major-works costs over time. Does the survey calculate what you would still owe?
• The developer talks about two years of snagging and NHBC describes a ten-year product. Why must you not collapse those into one promise the survey enforces?
• Guide: What should a survey of a leasehold flat cover?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• GOV.UK: Right to Manage: qualifying buildings (flats, not houses) and what an RTM company takes on
• GOV.UK: Leasehold property (service charges, Section 20 consultation thresholds, and the right to challenge)
• RICS: RICS Home Surveys (Home Survey Standard)