Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc. Remediation and redress: other provisions Section 133: Service charges in respect of remediation works Effect
This section amends the existing section 20 consultation process in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Subsection 133(4) inserts new section 120D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which sets out additional steps the landlord must undertake when embarking on defined remediation works.
	Subsection (2) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides that, for specified remediation works, the landlord must take reasonable steps to seek other cost recovery avenues before passing on the costs to leaseholders and must inform the leaseholders about what those steps were. The landlord must:
ascertain whether any grant is payable in respect of the remediation works and, if so, to obtain the grant;
ascertain whether all or any of the cost of remediation works may be met by a third party and, if so, to obtain monies from the third party (which is defined as including monies obtained from insurance, guarantee or indemnity or from the developer or anyone involved in designing or carrying out works on the building); and
ascertain whether any other prescribed kind of funding is available and to obtain such funding.
	Subsection (8) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 clarifies that the landlord is not required to comply with their duty to seek cost recovery avenues (subsection (2)) before carrying remediation works.
	Subsection (4) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides that, where funding is obtained, the landlord must reduce the remediation costs passed on to leaseholders accordingly.
	If the landlord does not comply with the above steps, subsection (5) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides that a tenant can make an application for an order that all or any of the remediation costs are not regarded as relevant costs and therefore should not be taken into account when determining the service charge payable by the tenant or anyone else specified in the application.
	Subsection (9) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides a power for the Secretary of State to issue guidance in relation to the steps set out in subsection (2).
	Subsection (10) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides that failure to follow guidance may be relied upon as tending to establish proof of failure to comply with the requirements in subsection (2), and conversely proof of following the guidance can be taken to establish that there was no such failure.
	Subsection (11) of new section 20D Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 provides for definitions of key terms ("developer", "prescribed", "remediation costs" and "third party").
	Subsection 133(4) also inserts new section 20E Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. New section 20Esets out the procedures for regulations made under new section 20D, notably that these regulations will be made using the negative procedure.
	Proposed use of Powers
	The Secretary of State will have the power to prescribe reasonable steps that a landlord must take and to set out how a landlord might demonstrate that they have met this requirement in statutory guidance.
	The Secretary of State will have the power to prescribe additional alternative sources of funding that the landlord must explore in regulations.
	The Secretary of State will be able to specify in regulations the information that the landlord must provide to the leaseholders about what steps they have taken, and the reasons for their course of action. This will enable leaseholders to be provided with accurate, up to date information and will enable them to make informed choices and to challenge when they   feel their landlord has not taken reasonable steps.