This week on Property Matters, Gareth Wax will be in the chair, joined by Hamish McLay and Zahrah Aullybocus, a specialist property lawyer at NEXA Law with extensive experience in leasehold, landlord and tenant matters, as the conversation turns to a growing issue facing flat owners across the UK.
There is a quiet issue bubbling away in blocks of flats, and it is starting to feel uncomfortably familiar.
Leaseholders on communal heating systems are opening letters that talk about upgrades, compliance, efficiency, and net zero. What they are also seeing are figures that run into tens of thousands of pounds. In some cases, £60,000 per flat or more.
That figure is the question sitting at the centre of this week’s discussion.
Communal heating, or heat networks, were sold as modern, efficient, and future-proof. For many residents, the reality has been very different. Systems were often poorly designed, oversized, or rushed in during development. Energy is lost before it even reaches the flat, unit prices feel high, and residents have no ability to switch supplier.
Now new technical standards are arriving, driven by the push towards net zero. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero wants heat networks to perform better, waste less energy, and meet tougher benchmarks. On paper, that makes sense. In practice, it means many existing systems fail the test.
When they fail, someone has to pay.
In most buildings, the freeholder or building owner controls the system. The leaseholders fund it through service charges. There is currently no legislation that stops the cost of major upgrades or full replacements being passed straight down the line. That is how a technical regulation becomes a life-changing bill.
What makes this sharper is the lack of choice. Heat networks operate as local monopolies. Residents cannot shop around, cannot opt out, and cannot install an alternative heat source. Even asking basic questions about pricing, efficiency, or metering can feel like pushing uphill.
Although heat networks are now regulated by Ofgem, much of that framework looks forward rather than back. It does not undo historic design failures, and it does not pick up the tab for systems that should arguably never have been signed off in the first place.
It is no surprise that comparisons with the cladding crisis are starting to surface. Leaseholders once again face large bills for issues they did not create, cannot control, and did not fully understand when they bought their homes. Properties become harder to sell, stress levels rise, and trust in the system takes another knock.
Some residents are starting to push back. Groups are forming. Questions are being asked about transparency, meter readings, technical assessments, and whether costs are reasonable or fair. Lawyers are watching closely. MPs are being contacted. Campaigns are calling for price caps and protections to be extended.
What is missing at the moment is a clear safety net.
Schemes like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme focus on individual homes, not communal systems. Support for leaseholders facing six-figure building-wide projects simply is not there. That gap feels increasingly uncomfortable.
On Tuesday, Property Matters will create space to talk this through properly. Not to shout, not to point fingers, yet to understand how we arrived here and where this could be heading next.
Because when a question like £60,000 lands on a kitchen table, it stops being about energy policy. It becomes about fairness, responsibility, and whether we are once again asking the wrong people to carry the cost.
You can join us live at 2pm on Tuesday, or catch up afterwards on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@SpillingTheProper-Tea
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