Freeholder’s legal costs.

 The service charge accounts for my block of flats says various “arrears of service charges” and have  I discovered this refers to the legal costs of using solicitors to chase other leaseholders for arrears. Can a freeholder pass the legal costs of pursuing leaseholders who don’t pay their charges promptly on to leaseholders who do?
The answer largely depends on the exact wording  your lease. There must be a specific term permitting the landlord to add solicitors’ and other legal fees incurred in chasing other leaseholders to your service charges.

The lease must be contain a clause in clear and unambiguous terms before a judge will being persuaded that that result was intended by the parties” to the lease.

Even if your lease this, the legal costs must also have been “reasonably incurred” under section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

To describe a give a silly, hypothetical case, if the landlord spent £5,000 in solicitors’ fees to chase £500  of arrears, you could apply to the First-Tier Tribunal for a determination that the recoverable legal costs should be reduced.