Service Charge Guide

For residential leaseholders in England

What should you do next about your service charge?

Understand what to check, what evidence to gather and what to do next. Free, independent guidance and templates for questioning a charge, taking a case to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) or seeking repayment.

Find my next stepAnswer 2 questions
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  • Legal information, not advice
I already know my stageGo straight to templates and checklists

This guide helps you:

  1. Check a demand and gather evidence.

  2. Prepare a First-tier Tribunal application.

  3. Follow directions and prepare for a hearing.

  4. Understand a decision and recover money.

  5. Confirm payment or choose enforcement.

Choose your stage

Start wherever you are now. You do not need to read every stage or take every case to court.

5 stages
Content and source review 5 September 2026

Before you take the next step

These distinctions can change what you need to do. Follow the link that matches your situation.

Has someone missed a deadline?
Check the order before asking the tribunal to stop the other side taking part (debarment). A missed deadline alone does not entitle you to that result. Check missed-deadline guidance.
Did the FTT decide what was payable?
A decision about what you should have paid is not necessarily an order to repay you. Read your FTT decision.
Do you need money repaid?
You may need a new County Court repayment claim. That is different from enforcing an existing payment order. Check the repayment route.
Are you asking about costs?
Getting tribunal fees back, preventing the landlord from passing on legal costs, and claiming costs for unreasonable conduct need separate requests. Compare the costs routes.

See how one leaseholder prepared their case

Follow a real service-charge dispute from tribunal decisions to a County Court repayment claim. See the calculation, how the defence was answered and what the court ordered. The example explains the result and its limits; it does not predict yours.

Open the worked example

Law and official guidance

5 sources