Alexander Bastin provides advice on how to avoid the service charge minefield
Whether rightly or wrongly, it is a common perception among property litigators that every block of flats in the country contains at least one refusenik whose sole purpose in life is to avoid paying their service charges and, generally, interfere in the management of the block. This combined with the ever-increasing complexity of service-charge related legislation and the, usually, costs-free First-tier Tribunal regime (always check the lease for a contractual costs clause) makes block management something of a minefield. Recently it has become ever easier for those responsible for managing a block to err inadvertently and find that expenditure (and money spent trying to recover expenditure) is irrecoverable.
Lessee management
At the same time, it is increasingly common to find lessees managing their block themselves (hopefully through a managing agent) whether by virtue of having the right to manage, collective enfranchisement or the freeholder / developer setting up a lessee-owned company to own and / or undertake the administration and management of the block. Where this is the case, there may be
