Decide what you are actually challenging

Check the lease, the demand date, any stated deadline and the possible consequences of delay. Keep the demand and every enclosure. Before withholding payment, obtain advice on your facts where needed; this guide cannot decide whether paying or withholding is safest in an individual case.

A service-charge dispute is not one question. For each item ask: does the lease permit it, was the cost reasonably incurred, was the work or service of a reasonable standard, and is the amount reasonable? Keep consultation, demand validity and time-limit issues on separate lines.

Build an issue schedule early. One row per charge is easier to prove, answer and decide than a long narrative complaint.

• Lease clause and apportionment
• Demand and summary of rights
• Budget, year-end account and statement
• Invoice, contract or specification
• What happened on site
• Your proposed payable amount and calculation

Identify the exact charge and accounting year. Ask for the named records needed to answer it—for example the relevant account, invoice, contract, specification or proof of payment—rather than requesting every document held.

Explain the question each record will help answer, give a reasonable response date, and state that you reserve your position while reviewing the information. Keep the request and response with the relevant issue-schedule row.

• Charge and accounting year
• Named record requested
• Question the record should answer
• Requested response date
• Reservation of position
• Copy of the request and response

Record the landlord, managing agent, named payee, actual recipient of funds and every company involved. The correct respondent at the FTT and the correct defendant in a later repayment claim are not necessarily the same.

Do not assume that payment means you agreed the charge. Section 27A allows determinations about charges already paid, and payment alone is not agreement. Keep evidence if you paid under protest, but do not rely on those words as a substitute for the underlying case.

Compare the amount at stake, the continuing effect of the issue, the evidence available and the time needed. Some disputes are best narrowed through a document request or a written correction before an application.

Record any limitation or statutory time issue for advice. This guide does not calculate limitation periods for a particular claim.