Service Charges
Summary of Tenant's Rights & Obligations

1. This summary, which briefly sets out your rights and obligations in relation to variable service charges, must by law accompany a demand for service charges.
Unless a summary is sent to you with a demand, you may withhold the service charge.
The summary does not give a full interpretation of the law and if you are in any doubt about your rights and obligations you should seek independent advice.

2. Your lease sets out your obligations to pay service charges to your landlord in addition to your rent.
Service charges are amounts payable for services, repairs, maintenance, improvements, insurance or the landlord's costs of management, to the extent that the costs have been reasonably incurred.

3. You have the right to ask a leasehold valuation tribunal to determine whether you are liable to pay service charges for services, repairs, maintenance, improvements, insurance or management.
You may make a request before or after you have paid the service charge.
If the tribunal determines that the service charge is payable, the tribunal may also determine:-

• who should pay the service charge and who it should be paid to
• the amount;
• the date it should be paid by; and
• how it should be paid.

However, you do not have these rights where:-

• a matter has been agreed or admitted by you;
• a matter has already been, or is to be, referred to arbitration or has been 
  determined by arbitration and you agreed to go to arbitration after the 
  disagreement about the service charge or costs arose; or
• a matter has been decided by a court.

4. If your lease allows your landlord to recover costs incurred or that may be incurred in legal proceedings as service charges, you may ask the court or tribunal, before which those proceedings were brought, to rule that your landlord may not do so.

5. Where you seek a determination from a leasehold valuation tribunal, you will have to pay an application fee and, where the matter proceeds to a hearing, a hearing fee, unless you qualify for a waiver or reduction. The total fees payable will not exceed £630 (2021 fees).
Making an application may incur additional costs, such as professional fees, which you may also have to pay.

6. A leasehold valuation tribunal has the power to award costs against a party to any proceedings where:-

• it dismisses a matter because it is frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of process;
• or
• it considers a party has acted frivolously, vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or unreasonably.