My SO Home: No. 41

How do you go about challenging service charges? Olivia Virag explains her experience of service charge problems, and what she thinks should change. She says: “Records should be accurate, charges properly evidenced and those responsible genuinely accountable.”

Before buying my shared-ownership home, I had spent ten years renting tiny rooms in other people’s houses across London, sharing kitchens and bathrooms with strangers. In my late forties, living on one income, I could not even qualify to rent a small studio flat. I never called those places home; they were simply places where I slept.

When I moved into my shared ownership home I felt like a queen in her castle

Shared ownership offered people like me a route to something better than a shoebox. I began preparing for it in 2018, and when I moved into my 30% share at Fletcher House on 31 July 2020, I was over the moon. I danced in my kitchen and watched the first sunrise through my own window. I felt like a queen in her castle.

I understood service charges as my fair contribution towards maintaining our communal areas. I trusted that a professional housing provider would calculate them properly. I had no reason to doubt that – not even slightly.

Service charge problems: the more questions I asked, the more problems emerged

My first enquiry, in October 2023, was friendly and straightforward. I simply asked what categories such as grounds maintenance and communal cleaning actually covered. I expected an explanation that would reassure me.

Instead, the explanation contradicted what I could see with my own eyes. When residents moved into the new building, its communal garden and entrance were attractively landscaped. Poor maintenance gradually destroyed much of it. Trees were damaged by lawnmowers, young hedges were simply cut down instead of being weeded around, and surviving plants were left to decline. The service we received did not resemble the one described to us.

Other residents shared my concerns

The more questions I asked, the more problems emerged: incorrect calculations and property details, incomplete records, missing invoices and unsupported charges. Some services appeared not to have been delivered as stated. Other residents confirmed that they shared my concerns.

Within months, the correspondence was going in circles. Answers were delayed, incomplete or failed to address my questions. I began to wonder whether Reside was unable to provide the information – or whether there was something it did not want residents to see.

My service charge problems eventually led to a case at the First-tier Tribunal

One ordinary enquiry became formal complaints, statutory requests for accounts and invoices, a Housing Ombudsman case and eventually an application to the First-tier Tribunal. I have now dealt with more than 250 emails, hundreds of photographs and an evidence bundle exceeding 800 pages. I have spent thousands of hours trying to establish whether the charges were correct.

This has consumed evenings, weekends and even annual leave that should have been spent living my life. There have been sleepless periods when I could think of little except the next deadline. My partner, Nick, has spent years watching me bent over the computer – often swearing at it – while doing his best to support me.

The legal process has been enormously difficult, but I couldn’t just walk away

Walking away would mean continuing to pay unexplained charges. Yet legal help can cost hundreds of pounds per hour or thousands simply to review a case. I am organised, technologically capable, persistent and willing to learn, but the legal process has still been enormously difficult. Without those qualities, I doubt I could have continued.

My greatest surprise was not discovering errors. It was encountering a level of administrative unprofessionalism I never expected from a council-owned housing organisation – and discovering how difficult it was to obtain answers or hold anyone accountable.

Service charge records should be accurate and housing providers should be genuinely accountable

I wrote Legal Rights on Paper because I do not believe this is only my story. Other leaseholders quietly confirm similar experiences, but many lack the time, energy, evidence or confidence to pursue them. Because I retained every letter, statement, photograph and email, I could document what usually remains hidden behind the scenes.

I still believe shared ownership offers a valuable route to a home for people who could not otherwise afford one. But poor service-charge transparency can poison that experience. A straightforward question deserves a straightforward answer. Records should be accurate, charges properly evidenced and those responsible genuinely accountable.

I hope shared owners, housing professionals, journalists and – most importantly – politicians and lawmakers will read my report and understand what exercising these rights looks like in reality.

A legal right is not a meaningful right if an ordinary person cannot afford – or realistically manage – to exercise it.

Additional Resources

Read Olivia’s story, Legal Rights on Paper, below.