Constant increase in service charges and all complaints or questions ignored

thebarber

eddddy said:

thebarber said:

tribunal only seems to apply for yearly service charges i cant find any option to appeal cost of works

I'm not sure where you're looking - but taking a step back...

• Your service charge is your share of the Freeholder's costs  (The service charge is a grand total of all the bills the Freeholder has to pay, which is then shared across all the flats.)

• The Freeholder's costs will include the cost of works

So, for the sake of an example, let's say

• There are 5 flats in your block, so each leaseholder has to pay 20% of the total Service Charge.

• In November 2023, the freeholder spent £4000 on scaffolding - you think that's unreasonable, they should have only spent £1000

• So the freeholder has charged you 20% of that £4000 = £800, which will be included in your 2023 Service Charge bill

• So you challenge that £800 charge in your 2023 Service Charge bill (and provide evidence that instead of being an £800 charge, it should have been 20% of £1000 = £200)

If the tribunal agree with you, you get £600 back.

You can include a list charges from your 2023 Service Charge Bill in your tribunal application (as well as other years).





Edit to add...

Apologies if you realise this, and if you think I'm stating the obvious...

A service charge bill is like a shared bill in a restaurant.

5 of you go to a restaurant for a meal, the total bill is £200 - so you each have to pay £40.

But you realise that the restaurant has included a bottle of wine charged at £50, which should have been £25.

So you challenge it, and as a result you get £5 of your £40 back.

We get a yearly service charge which we pay monthly however this is a one off major repair so was billed separately as a one time payment required a large £3400 one time payment required to be paid in 30 days. Another aspect of that is the internal block was being painted at the time of the works so the painting stopped and a large portion of internal ceiling was removed to access the roof. The ceiling has not been repaired and the painting has not been finished. If we are being charged as the work is fully finished hence the final bill I do not want to be charged again later for the work to actually be finished.Getting answers from hyde is impossible