The landlord should follow the lease terms when charging you service charges. The service charges will usually be split between leaseholders in a property.
Your lease might say the amount you pay will change from year to year, although some leases specify a fixed amount.
The lease will also say what your share of service charges should be. This could be described in the lease as a fixed percentage or proportion of the total costs of repair, maintenance, management and insurance of the building.
Sometimes the lease may say that you have to pay a fair, a proper, due or reasonable amount of costs incurred by the landlord. Such a clause often states that the landlord’s surveyor should determine what this proportion should be. If this is the case with your lease, and if you don’t agree with the apportionment as determined by the landlord or their surveyor, you can make an application to the Tribunal and challenge the apportionment for not being reasonable.
More information you might find useful:
- Service Charges and other issues
- Resolutions for service charge disputes
- More Frequently Asked Questions on Service Charges
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