Service charges: does the landlord pay them or the tenant?
It can be agreed, but only if it is done properly and in writing. What the law requires and what happens if the contract leaves it half done.
This is one of the clauses most often copied badly from templates found online, and one of those that causes most arguments in year two.
The starting rule
By default, the property's general costs fall to the **landlord**. Having the tenant take them on is possible, but only if it is **expressly agreed in writing** and the annual amount they represent at the date of the contract is stated.
That last detail is the one almost nobody complies with, and it is precisely what makes the agreement valid: writing "the tenant pays the service charge" is not enough.
What is never passed on
- Special levies for improvement works or extraordinary repairs: they are an investment in the property and fall to whoever owns it.
- Property tax, unless expressly agreed and on the same written terms.
- Costs that cannot be individually metered where the law requires that they are.
If you are the landlord, keep every service-charge receipt you pass on. If you are the tenant, ask for the receipt: paying a round figure without seeing it is the fastest route to a disagreement a year from now.
And one caution
Even if the tenant pays the service charge, as far as the owners' association is concerned the person liable is still the landlord. If the tenant stops paying, the one listed as in arrears at the meeting is you. Worth checking now and then rather than assuming.
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