Service charges are levied by landlords to pay for the upkeep of their property, typically to pay for maintenance and repairs, building insurance and management costs. Not surprisingly, they are one of the main areas for dispute between tenants and landlords.
Details of your service charges will be set out in your lease agreement, and can go up as well as down, but should only be for reasonable costs. Disputes could be around unreasonably high charges, or fees taken at a higher rate than set out in the lease or for things not even covered by the lease (window cleaning for example).
You can also challenge charges where you think the landlord is carrying out refurbishments or improvements not covered by your lease, rather than essential repairs and when you believe any work carried out is substandard.
You may be able to resolve any issues directly with your landlord, but if you need legal advice and support we can help.
We can also advise landlords who are the subject of a service charge challenge.
We will always agree a price for our services with you in advance, so you can be confident you know what to expect.
