Challenging service charges
Paying service charges under protest
If you disagree with a service charge and think you might want to challenge it, you can pay “under protest”. This means you pay the charge, but you make it clear to your landlord that you are objecting to it.
Even though it’s your legal right not to pay more than is reasonable, it’s risky to withhold payment for a service charge, as it’s likely to be a breach of your lease. It could put you at risk of a court claim from your landlord.
If you make it clear that you’re paying under protest, it will be easier to dispute the charge later. This is because you cannot challenge a service charge at a tribunal if you have already “agreed or admitted responsibility for paying”.
The fact that you have paid a charge does not necessarily mean that you have agreed responsibility for paying. But if you make regular payments as normal over a few years, a tribunal might decide that you have agreed to the charge.
You should also be careful in the way you reply to service charge demands you might disagree with, to make sure that a tribunal cannot interpret your reply as an agreement that you’re responsible for paying.
Template letter
You can use our template letter to write to your landlord to make payment under protest.
- Last updated:
- 10 December 2025
- Next review:
- 10 December 2027
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