Do Leaseholders need to be notified of the costs of work they are financially liable for?

Hi all,

I hope this is the right forum for this question.

We own a flat in a block of 5 flats & a shop on the ground floor. We were told via email that there would be “planned external decorations” around 2 months before they started but no mention of costs over and above the usual yearly service charge.

After that we just received two further emails, one containing information from the contractor about access etc and the other with the contractor’s contact details.

At no point were we informed of the costs until after the work was complete, at which point I received an email headed “Interim Expenditure Charges”, with an invoice for almost two thousand pounds (I genuinely have no idea what for, but that’s a whole other discussion).

My question is should there have been more of a process to this, involving the leaseholders? Should we have been asked about the work, involved in any of the decision making, the tender process etc, or can the Managing Agents just make arbitrary decisions and charge us for them?

Thank you for any help and guidance you can give.