Service charges
This key topic page shares information on how the Ombudsman can help with complaints about Service Charges. It covers common issues we see in our casework and learning from our Insight Report on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
What is a service charge?
Service charges are payments that a leaseholder or a resident must pay for the cost of services provided by a landlord. These can be fixed charges or variable charges set out under the resident's lease or tenancy agreement.
Learn more about what rent and service charge issues we can consider in our resident factsheet.
How can the Ombudsman help with Service Charges?
The Ombudsman can consider complaints from a resident who has a lease, tenancy, license to occupy, service agreement, or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a landlord member.
The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about the communication, transparency, and fairness of service charges, but not the amount of the charges themselves.
Our fact sheet , shares information for residents who have concerns about the level of service charge they have paid or have been asked to pay by their landlord.
Guidance
Landlord expectations
Landlords can read the expectations to find out how to review service charge complaints proactively and implement the Housing Ombudsman’s core lessons.
Resident expectations
Residents can read the guidance provided to understand what your landlord must do and what the Ombudsman can do in relation to service charges.
Reports
Insight report on service charges
Our spotlight report on service charges shares best practices for handling complaints about charges with a focus on improving customer service and managing resident expectations. It provides clarity on areas the Ombudsman can consider and information on area’s landlords should be signposting residents to other organisations.
Spotlight report
Our spotlight report on leaseholders, shared ownership and new builds, brings together insight from our casework. It provides recommendations for landlord learning and case studies to improve standards in area’s we see the most complaints.
Case studies
The case studies are examples from our case work. We will always try to show one example where the landlord did things right and received a finding of no maladministration and an example where a landlord did not act in the correct way and received a finding of severe maladministration or maladministration.
No Maladministration
We found no maladministration in how a landlord provided a breakdown of service charges. The landlord fulfilled its obligation to provide a breakdown of what the resident will pay as a fixed service charge and included it within the breakdown of the total rent.
The Ombudsman is unable to consider the level of service charge or the level of increase but can consider the actions the landlord took when the resident asked it to provide a breakdown of service charges.
Severe Maladministration
We found severe maladministration in this case after a landlord unreasonably withheld a refund for a charge the resident was not liable for.
The landlord recognised that the resident had paid charges they were not required to, but the landlord withheld the refund until the resident agreed to a variation of the lease to include the charge.
We ordered the landlords senior leadership to issue a written apology to the resident for inappropriate compensation conditions and review the issues highlighted in the report. We also requested the removal of service charges from the resident's tenancy records and awarded £3,139.35 in compensation.
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Resident information
When to use the Housing Ombudsman Service
If you are unable to resolve the complaint with your landlord directly via its complaint procedure, this service may be able to provide you with further assistance.
View the residents' pages to find out how to raise and complaint to your landlord and when to escalate your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service.