Service Charge when buying a leasehold property

Sharedealer123

I have bought a leasehold property.   The previous owners had paid the service charge up until 1st October 2025.  The service charge period was 1st April 2025 until 30th March 2026, to be paid biannually.   I moved around 25th September 2025.   Who is responsible for the service charge from 1st October until 30th March 2026? 

Neil49

You will be responsible from the day you moved in. Any funds paid in advance by the previous owner should be calculated by the solicitors involved in the buying and selling of the property and refunded accordingly. 

eddddy

Sharedealer123 said:

I have bought a leasehold property.   The previous owners had paid the service charge up until 1st October 2025.  The service charge period was 1st April 2025 until 30th March 2026, to be paid biannually.   I moved around 25th September 2025.   Who is responsible for the service charge from 1st October until 30th March 2026? 

In general, you have to pay any Service Charge bills that are dated after your completion date.

So it sounds like you received a service charge bill that was dated somewhere around 1st October - so you are responsible for paying it, because you completed before the 1st October.



To be honest - if you received a Service Charge bill dated around the 1st October and you haven't paid it yet, I suspect they'll be a chunk of enforcement costs added to the bill by now.




Edit to add...

Sharedealer123 said:

...to be paid biannually.  

Just to double check...

• 1) Does the lease say the service charge must be paid every 6 months
• 2) Or does the lease say the service charge must be paid every 12 months - but the freeholder allows it to be paid in two 6 monthly installments?

If it's option 1, you are almost certainly responsible for paying the bill

If it's option 2, the situation might be more complicated. In that case, you might or might not be responsible for paying the bill, but all outstanding installments should have been paid on completion.