Service Charge Apportionment for Flat

Brentwood1

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for some advice regarding my service charges. I bought a share-of-freehold flat in June 2021. At the time of purchase, I was told by the estate agent that service charges would be apportioned since it’s a ground-floor flat with its own entrance, and we don’t have access to the communal hallways. The advert stated that my flat and four others wouldn’t contribute towards the maintenance of the stairwell and upstairs corridors, meaning our costs would be reduced proportionately.

Two months after moving in, a new management company took over. The previous management company had only been set up to transfer the freehold from the developer. Suddenly, the service charge budget that previously included the proportional split was replaced by a new budget split equally across all 14 flats.

At the time, I raised this with the new management company. They told me the lease requires service charges to be split equally, with each leaseholder paying 1/14th. I checked my lease and, to my surprise, this was indeed correct.

Now, four years later, the maintenance costs for the internal stairwell and corridors are increasing, with the internal flats requesting additional cleaning and services. In all honesty, I feel I shouldn’t be paying for these costs.

What options, if any, do I have in this situation? Will i be successful in a tribunal? 

Thanks in advance!

 

subjecttocontract

I can't see how you could be successful if the current lease terms require costs split equally.
It's not a good idea to accept the word of an estate agent but to get your solicitor to provide details. I'm surprised they didn't inform you of the situation.

Brentwood1

Is there anyway to challenge this at all in a tribunal, if we argued that the ground-floor flats should not contribute towards costs of areas it cannot access and does not benefit from. 

To be honest  i am also surprised that my solicitor didn't pick up on this. I saw the service charge budget in the searches that came back and i assumed it was all okay at the time. I expected them to check the lease.