Guide · Leasehold, England & Wales · Reviewed 12 July 2026
Can I refuse to pay my service charge?
The honest short answer: a service charge is a contractual obligation under your lease, and refusing a valid, reasonable demand creates real problems. But the law recognises three specific situations where the money is not due — or not due yet — and it protects leaseholders who withhold for stated reasons far more than most people expect.
The three situations where the law is on your side
- The demand arrived without the prescribed summary of rights. Every service-charge demand must be accompanied by a summary of tenants' rights and obligations in prescribed wording (s.21B Landlord and Tenant Act 1985). If yours wasn't, you may withhold payment until a compliant demand is served, and the lease's late-payment provisions cannot bite in the meantime (s.21B(3)–(4)).
- The demand doesn't identify your landlord. A demand must contain the landlord's name and address (s.47 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987) and an England & Wales address for service (s.48). Demands branded only with a managing agent's name are a common failure. Until cured, the charge is "treated for all purposes as not being due" (s.47(2)).
- The costs are older than 18 months. You are not liable for costs incurred more than 18 months before the demand was served, unless you were notified in writing within that window that the costs had been incurred and a contribution would be required (s.20B). This one doesn't pause the charge — it extinguishes it. Detail: the 18-month rule.
Be clear-eyed about the first two: they buy time and leverage, and the landlord can revive the charge by re-serving properly. Withholding on those grounds is lawful while the defect stands, and no more than that.
If you withhold, do it properly
Withholding should be a considered position, communicated in writing, with the ground and the statutory section stated. Silence looks like arrears; a reasoned letter is a dispute. Three protections and risks to know:
- Forfeiture is further away than the arrears letters imply. A landlord cannot forfeit the lease for unpaid service or administration charges unless the amount is finally determined by a tribunal or court, or admitted — and even then not until 14 days after the determination (s.81 Housing Act 1996).
- Expect pressure that isn't forfeiture. Arrears correspondence and administration fees (themselves challengeable under Schedule 11 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002) are the usual response.
- Tell your mortgage lender in writing that the sum is disputed. Lenders sometimes pay landlord demands and add them to the mortgage; a written note of the dispute heads that off.
The lower-risk alternative: pay and challenge
Payment alone does not count as agreeing the charge. Charges you have already paid can still be challenged at the First-tier Tribunal (s.27A(5) Landlord and Tenant Act 1985), which also applies the reasonableness test in s.19 — costs are recoverable only to the extent reasonably incurred. If your payment deadline is close and the position is unclear, paying under written protest and challenging afterwards loses you nothing but temporary use of the money. More: challenging after payment.
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