# Can a managing agent use ChatGPT for leaseholder letters and Section 20 notices? Prices, data terms and three prompts

> Yes for drafting leaseholder letters, no for the Section 20 notice itself. What ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini cost a small firm and their data terms.

- Page to cite: https://aeolookup.com/block-management/can-managing-agent-use-chatgpt-leaseholder-letters-section-20-notices/
- Publisher: AEO Lookup (https://aeolookup.com/)
- Section: Block and property managers, Running the firm
- Published 1 October 2026
- Key fact: On 1 October 2026 the business plans a small block management firm would buy were listed at £15 a seat a month for ChatGPT Business, £18 for Claude Team billed annually with VAT included, £13.80 for the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on paid yearly and £11.80 for Google Workspace Business Standard with Gemini on a one-year commitment. Each vendor says content on those plans is not used to train its models by default. Eight seats come to between £1,132.80 and £1,440 a year before VAT.
- Sources: openai.com/business/chatgpt-pricing and openai.com/enterprise-privacy; claude.com/pricing and privacy.claude.com; microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365-copilot/pricing and learn.microsoft.com (Microsoft 365 Copilot privacy); workspace.google.com/intl/en_uk/pricing and the Google Workspace generative AI privacy hub; RICS, Responsible use of AI in surveying practice; ICO, Guidance on AI and data protection; UK GDPR Article 28 (legislation.gov.uk); all read 2026-10-01, vendor pages in a browser render. Desk check only: we did not buy or test any plan.

Yes, for drafting: a managing agent can use ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini to draft leaseholder replies and covering letters, on a business plan whose terms keep the firm's content out of model training, from about £12 to £15 a seat a month. The Section 20 notice itself is the exception. Its contents and dates come from the regulations, and one wrong date can cap recovery at £250 a flat.

**What this is.** A desk check of each vendor's own pricing and data pages as they stood on 1 October 2026. We did not buy or test the plans. Prices change, so read the live page before deciding.

## What the business plans cost and what the terms say

| Plan a small firm would buy | Listed price | Eight seats for a year | Training on your content |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Business, standard seat | £15 a seat a month | £1,440 | Not used by default. On the personal plans (Free, Go, Plus, Pro) it is used unless you opt out |
| Claude Team, standard seat | £18 a seat a month billed annually, £22.50 billed monthly, both including 20% VAT | £1,728 including VAT, which is £1,440 before it | Not used by default. On the personal plans it depends on the user's own setting |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, added to a Microsoft 365 plan | £13.80 a user a month paid yearly, shown as reduced from £16.10; £19.32 paid monthly | £1,324.80 | Prompts, responses and the data Copilot reaches in your Microsoft 365 account are not used to train the underlying models |
| Google Workspace Business Standard, Gemini included | £11.80 a user a month on a one-year commitment | £1,132.80 | Not used to train generative models outside your own domain without permission |

The ChatGPT, Copilot and Google prices are before VAT; Claude's includes it. OpenAI's page showed £15 as the headline, with a line beneath it in dollars ($20 billed annually, $25 monthly), so confirm the sterling figure at checkout. Claude's page first loads with US dollar prices and swaps to its UK version once it finishes loading. The UK version showed Team at £18 a seat a month billed annually or £22.50 billed monthly, and Pro at £18 a month or £180 for a year paid up front, all including 20% VAT. For a firm with no Microsoft 365 plan yet, Microsoft sells Business Standard with Copilot built in at £18.10 a user a month paid yearly.

## Leaseholder data

A leaseholder's name, flat, arrears balance and complaint are personal data. When the firm pastes them into a tool, the vendor is processing that data on the firm's behalf. Article 28 of the UK GDPR requires a written contract with any processor, and allows only processors that give sufficient guarantees. So the working rules are short:

1. Use the firm's business account, never a free or personal one.
2. Get the vendor's data processing terms on file before anyone pastes a ledger.
3. Leave out what the draft does not need. A reply about a roof repair does not need the arrears balance.

## Three prompts for routine jobs

**A reply to a leaseholder query.**

> You are drafting a reply for a block managing agent in England. Use only the facts below. Do not state what the lease or the law says unless I have given you the clause or section. If a fact is missing, list it under "To check" instead of guessing. Keep it under 180 words, plain and polite. Facts: [paste the query, the lease clause, the repair or account status].

**A covering letter for a Section 20 notice.**

> Write a one-page covering letter to leaseholders explaining, in plain English, that the enclosed notice of intention starts a consultation on [works]. Say what the notice is, that written observations are invited by [date from the notice], and where to send them. Do not restate or alter the notice. Do not give any date I have not supplied.

**A file note from a long email thread.**

> Summarise this thread as a file note: who asked for what, on which date, what we promised and by when. List open actions with an owner. Quote exact dates and sums; do not round or infer. [paste thread]

Each prompt tells the tool what it may not do. Read every draft against the file before it goes out.

## The one job not to hand over

Do not let a chatbot write the Section 20 notice or count its dates. The notice of intention has contents fixed by Schedule 4 to the 2003 Regulations, set out in our [stage-by-stage guide](https://aeolookup.com/block-management/section-20-consultation-process-stages-managing-agents/). The relevant period is 30 days beginning with the date of the notice, so a notice dated 6 October 2026 closes on 4 November, not 5 November. A tool that adds 30 days gets it wrong by a day.

The price of a mistake is the cap. On a £48,000 roof across 24 equal shares, a failed consultation limits recovery to £250 a flat, £6,000 in all, and leaves £42,000 with the client. Keep the notice on the firm's own template, take the dates from the [Section 20 checker](https://aeolookup.com/block-management/section-20-consultation-threshold-and-timetable-checker/), and have a property manager sign it off. The same goes for any sentence saying what a leaseholder owes under the lease: that is read from the lease, with the clause number.

## What the regulators have published

RICS has a professional standard, Responsible use of AI in surveying practice, in effect since 9 March 2026. It binds RICS members and regulated firms where AI has a material impact on the delivery of surveying services, and covers data governance, risk management, checks on outputs and telling clients. RICS's own answers say that drafting emails is unlikely to have a material impact, while a chatbot that deals with clients may.

The ICO's Guidance on AI and data protection was last updated on 15 March 2023 and is marked as under review following the Data (Use and Access) Act. We found nothing from the ICO written for managing agents. The Property Institute's factsheets are for members only, so we could not check whether it has published anything on AI.

## Leaseholders use it too

Expect letters that quote a chatbot's view of the law. Our guide to [a section 22 request](https://aeolookup.com/block-management/section-22-request-inspect-service-charge-invoices-reply-template/) shows how to sort one into the rights it could be.

Overlyft ![](https://aeolookup.com/img/d/ours-badge.png) can set up an AI Leaseholder Desk that drafts replies to routine leaseholder emails and names the rule each rests on for the property manager to approve, and a Consultation Clerk role that drafts the notice of intention from the firm's own template.

This is general information for England, not legal or data protection advice.

## Short answers from this page

**Can a managing agent use ChatGPT to write leaseholder letters and Section 20 notices?** Yes for drafting leaseholder replies and covering letters, on a business plan whose terms keep the firm's content out of model training: ChatGPT Business was listed at £15 a seat a month on 1 October 2026. Not for the Section 20 notice itself. Its contents and 30-day dates come from the 2003 Regulations, and a failed consultation caps recovery at £250 a flat.

---
![](https://aeolookup.com/img/d/owner-line.png)

General information for UK small firms, not legal, tax or financial advice.