Guide · Leasehold, England & Wales · Reviewed 12 July 2026
How to challenge a service charge
Most successful challenges follow the same route: check the demand itself, use your inspection rights, test each charge against the lease and the statute, and only then think about the tribunal. Here is that route in order, with the section of law behind each step.
1. Check whether the demand is even valid
Two defects are common enough to check before anything else, and both change what you owe right now.
- The 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 it wasn't, you may withhold payment until a compliant demand is served, and the lease's late-payment provisions cannot bite for the withheld period (s.21B(3)–(4)).
- The landlord's name and address. The demand must contain your landlord's name and address (s.47 Landlord and Tenant Act 1987) and an England & Wales address for service (s.48). A demand naming only the managing agent fails this, and the charge is "treated for all purposes as not being due" until the information is furnished (s.47(2)).
Both defects pause the obligation rather than erase it — the landlord can cure them by re-serving. What they buy is time and leverage, and they signal how carefully the rest of the demand was prepared. More detail: is my service charge demand valid?
2. Ask for the accounts — it's a statutory right
Under s.21 of the 1985 Act you can require a written summary of the costs behind your charge, and under s.22 you can then inspect the invoices, receipts and supporting documents — the inspection itself is free. Where the building has more than four dwellings, the summary must be certified by a qualified accountant who is independent of the landlord. Failure to comply without reasonable excuse is a summary offence carrying a fine of up to £2,500 (s.25). In practice the request does two things: it produces the evidence a challenge needs, and it tells the landlord someone is actually reading.
Our free toolkit includes a prepared accounts-inspection letter you can send today.
3. Test the charges against the statute
Four grounds do most of the work in tribunal decisions:
- Reasonableness (s.19). Costs are recoverable only to the extent they were reasonably incurred, and works only if of a reasonable standard. Management fees, insurance placement and major works are the usual battlegrounds — tribunals commonly hold management fees of around 10–15% of expenditure reasonable for ordinary blocks, which makes outliers visible.
- The 18-month rule (s.20B). You are not liable for costs incurred more than 18 months before the demand, unless you were notified in writing within that window. Unlike the validity defects, this one extinguishes the liability. Detail: the 18-month rule.
- Consultation on major works (s.20). Where your share of works exceeds £250, the landlord must have consulted in the prescribed two-stage form or recovery is capped at £250 per tenant (£100 a year for long-term agreements) unless the tribunal grants dispensation.
- The lease itself. Before any statute, the landlord can recover only what the lease permits. An item with no clause behind it is not recoverable at all.
4. Put your position in writing
Whether you withhold on a validity defect or dispute specific items, do it in a letter that states the ground and the section, keeps the tone factual, and asks for a specific remedy. Silence reads as arrears; a reasoned letter reads as a dispute. If you have a mortgage, tell your lender in writing that the sum is disputed, because lenders sometimes pay landlord demands and add them to the loan.
5. The tribunal, if it comes to that
The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decides whether a service charge is payable and reasonable (s.27A of the 1985 Act) and is designed for leaseholders without lawyers. Charges you have already paid can still be challenged — payment alone doesn't count as agreement (s.27A(5)). From 13 July 2026 the fees are £114 to apply and £227 if it reaches a hearing, and each side generally bears its own costs. Two standard companion applications — s.20C of the 1985 Act and paragraph 5A of Schedule 11 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 — stop the landlord's legal costs coming back to you through the service charge.
Have the whole demand checked — £149 fixedEvery line against your lease and the statute, delivered within 48 hours · £100 back if we find no grounds