What is actually in your service charge
The demand shows a total and a due date. The detail lives somewhere else, and reading one against the other is most of the work.
You are in a stronger position than you may think
In England and Wales, leaseholders have rights set out in statute: to see the invoices and receipts behind the service charge, and to ask an independent body to decide whether a charge was reasonable.
That is worth knowing before you read anything else, because it changes what a question is. You are not asking a favour.
This page does not explain how to use those rights, and deliberately so — how they apply depends on your lease, and that is a question for someone who has read it.
The three documents, and what each one is for
The demand tells you what to pay and by when. It is the least informative of the three.
The budget is what the manager expected to spend for the year. It is a plan, not a record.
The accounts are what was actually spent. This is the document worth your time, and the one people read last.
Set the budget beside the accounts. Where a line came in materially above what was planned, that gap is not automatically wrong — but it is the thing to ask about, and it is invisible if you only read the demand.
The lines worth a question
The management fee, separately from what contractors were paid. They are different things and are often presented as one.
Anything major. Large works usually have their own consultation process attached, and a large figure that arrived without one is worth asking about.
Insurance. It is a line like any other and it can be compared.
Sundries, administration, other. Same as anywhere: this is where costs go when nobody has categorised them.
Your apportionment. Your share is fixed by your lease. If the building's total rose and your share rose by more, two things happened and only one of them was announced.
What this means if you stop paying
Do not stop paying while you query a charge.
Questioning whether a charge is fair and withholding payment are two different things. Under a lease, arrears can put your home at risk, and the sums involved do not have to be large. Keep paying, and put your questions in writing.
Where Synclair comes in
Synclair reads the demand, the budget and the accounts together and lays out what each line covers, how your charges sit against published figures rather than against a feeling, and what changed between years. Anything you report about the building stays on record with a date, so next year you have a history rather than a memory.
One document is enough to start. It is free for three months, and the three months begin when your first analysis is ready — not when you sign up.
Check your own statement →