Council leaseholders say they would be better off with private landlords after facing home repair bills of up to £40,000.

The call is an embarrassment to the council which has been one of the most strident critics of the raw deal faced by the city's 25,000 private leaseholders.

It is two years since Tehmtan Framroze, cabinet spokesman for housing at Brighton and Hove Council, called for the 'feudal' leasehold system to be abolished.

Campaigners and councillors alike have agreed that ripped-off leaseholders and greedy landlords are the equivalent of modern-day serfs and barons, caught up in a system which is frequently unequal, unjust and unscrupulous.

But for Nick Green, co-founder of the independent forum of council leaseholders, the words of Coun Framroze have a hollow ring.

Mr Green believes the city's estimated 1,800 council leaseholders are among the worst-off in Brighton and Hove, which has more leaseholders than anywhere in the country outside the capital.

Some of the council tenants who took advantage of the Eighties' right to buy scheme may now own their homes but still answer to the council as their freeholder.

As the owner of the land on which their property is built, the authority can charge them for whatever repairs it deems necessary.

Just as private leaseholders complain of repair bills and year-on-year delays to renovations, leaseholders claim they are victims of similar injustices.

But according to Mr Green, council leaseholders are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to getting things fixed.

He says council leaseholders often fall between two stools when it comes to legislation designed to protect the rights of private leaseholders or of council tenants.

"Important legislation such as the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 excludes social landlords (local authorities or housing associations) from the strictures designed to protect leaseholders."

Because many of their neighbours are council tenants, leaseholders often feel isolated. There may be just one leaseholder in a block who has to pay for major repair work.

Private-sector landlords are legally required to appoint an independent accountant to audit their accounts.

While the council acts as a prosecuting authority when private landlords breach the law, but a local authority cannot prosecute itself.

And social landlords are exempt from the standard code of practice for service charges laid down by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

The council has won Government praise for its funding of the Private Sector Housing Forum which provides help and advice for grievances against landlords but supplies no equivalent for its own leaseholders.

But, according to David Covill, the council's assistant director of Environment and Housing, the majority of council leaseholders are happy to own their own homes. A 1998 survey showed 73 per cent were either satisfied or very satisfied with their experiences Mr Covill said local authorities were in a different position to private-sector landlords. "The interests of leaseholders have to be balanced with those of council tenants. Issues facing us are different from those in the private sector.

"The Government has put a lot of capital investment into local authority housing in the last three years.

"Under the terms of their lease, we are legally obliged to recover the share of the cost that relates to leaseholders. That is not to minimise the problems leaseholders face. But we need to make sure our estates are attractive for owners and tenants alike."

In 1999/00 59 flats were sold at an average price of £16,612. The average discount on the real value of the property was 60 per cent.

"When people apply to buy their property they are told of the discount to which they are entitled and of their responsibilities as a home owner. If you buy a property, you are responsible for repairing and maintaining it."

Many council tenants who have taken advantage of the right to buy legislation now say the dream of owning their own home has turned into a nightmare.

Council leaseholder, Rosie Bernard, was given an estimate of £25,000 in September for work to be done on her flat in Tillstone Street. The bill was more than the cost of her mortgage. Len Bonnington, a neighbour, received a bill of £15,000 for major repair work. He claimed to have told the council ten years ago that major repairs were needed.

Council leaseholder Pejman Varghai was told repair work charges to the block might total £5,000 when he bought his flat in St Aubyns Gardens. He was shocked when the renovation work he had been expecting was actually estimated at £40,000.

The problems facing council leaseholders will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday.