Service Charge Dispute Solicitors

Only what the lease permits. The service charge provisions define the services, the recoverable costs, any cap and the machinery for certification and apportionment, and the landlord's recovery is limited to costs falling within those words. Courts require clear words before unusual or onerous costs can be recovered, and sweeper clauses are read in the context of the services the lease actually contemplates. The first step in any dispute is a line by line comparison of the demand against the lease.

Withholding is risky and depends on the lease. Many commercial leases require the charge to be paid without set off, so withholding can put the tenant in breach and expose it to interest, costs and, in serious cases, forfeiture, even where parts of the underlying demand are later shown to be excessive. The safer course is usually to pay under protest, reserve your position in writing and pursue the challenge, unless the lease clearly permits otherwise. We advise on the specific wording before any payment is stopped.

Start with the lease: whether the works fall within the services, whether they are repairs or improvements, and whether any cap, exclusion or consultation machinery applies. Then test the procurement: the RICS professional statement expects transparency and value for money, and a landlord who cannot evidence a proper process is exposed. Major works disputes frequently settle on a phased or reduced recovery once the lease and the paperwork have been examined properly.

The certificate is the document by which the lease typically crystallises the year's charge, often stated to be conclusive save for fraud or manifest error. Its effect depends entirely on the lease's words: conclusivity clauses are read strictly, they rarely protect costs outside the lease's scope, and a certificate produced in breach of the machinery may not bind at all. A tenant is generally entitled to the accounts and vouchers behind it, and the reconciliation exercise is where most successful challenges begin.

Residential service charges are governed by a separate statutory regime, including reasonableness controls and tribunal jurisdiction, and they follow different procedures from the commercial disputes this page describes. Our focus is commercial property. If your dispute concerns a residential long lease, tell us about it and we will let you know honestly whether we are the right firm or point you in the right direction.

The options track those for rent arrears: demand and negotiation, drawing on any deposit, pursuing guarantors, a debt claim, and ultimately forfeiture where the lease allows, subject to the statutory notice requirements. The prior question is whether the demand is robust, because a tenant with a genuine challenge to the certificate or the recoverability of costs has a defence that will surface in any claim. We stress test the demand first, then enforce it.

We quote fixed fees for every stage, agreed before any work starts, at prices around 30% cheaper than a standard law firm, from an initial audit of the demand against the lease through to mediation or proceedings. Because service charges repeat every year, a successful challenge or a properly established recovery usually pays for itself many times over across the remaining term.