How to Challenge a 30% Rise in Apartment Block Service Charges

On a Tuesday evening, in the managing agent’s small fluorescent-lit meeting room, leaseholders stare at the same columns of figures with a mix of weariness and disbelief. The caretaker has left the building, communal heating costs more, the lift needs another repair… and the service-charge demand has risen yet again. For some, the increase exceeds 30% over three years. It is no longer something that can be dismissed with a simple “that’s life”. Around the table, one neighbour pulls out old statements, a retired resident calculates on his phone, and a young owner asks why nobody saw it coming. Apartment block service charges are not an impenetrable inevitability. They can be examined, discussed and, in some cases, challenged. The key is to arrive prepared.

Why service charges are soaring in so many apartment blocks

We all know the point at which an expense seems manageable before suddenly becoming too heavy, without it being clear when things changed. In a shared-ownership building, increases are often hidden in the accumulation of small items: a more expensive cleaning contract, higher insurance premiums, water and energy bills, managing-agent fees and repeated repairs. Across three financial years, the combined effect can put serious pressure on a household budget.

In a 42-unit development in Lyon, average annual service charges rose from €2,050 to €2,680 between 2022 and 2025, an increase of almost 31%. Heating accounted for a substantial share of the rise, but the owners also found that the boiler maintenance contract had increased without any meaningful competitive tendering. An old leak in the garage had also inflated the water bill for months.

Such growth is not necessarily unjustified: energy prices, insurance costs and labour charges have genuinely affected buildings. The issue begins when nobody separates unavoidable increases from poorly monitored spending. A service-charge demand does not explain anything by itself. It reflects decisions, contracts, consumption and sometimes long-established practices that nobody questions any more.

Before the annual general meeting: documents that can change everything

The first practical step is to request the accounting documents before the annual general meeting rather than waiting until the evening of the vote. Every leaseholder can inspect the supporting documents for service charges, under the arrangements set by the managing agent, ahead of the meeting. Water invoices, maintenance agreements, energy statements, quotations and the general ledger should all be compared over two or three years to identify what has risen and what has merely been renamed.

Many owners skim the accounting schedules because they appear technical and uninviting. That is understandable: between work, children and appointments, this kind of reading is easily postponed. Let us be honest: nobody really does it every day. Yet an hour spent highlighting unusual entries can uncover duplicate billing, an automatically renewed contract or works allocated to the wrong account.

It helps to arrive with brief, numerical questions that cannot simply be brushed aside. In particular, list items that are rising well beyond inflation, then ask for a written answer or for it to be recorded in the minutes.

“A charge is better challenged with an invoice and a date than with a feeling that you are paying too much.”

• Compare the approved accounts for the past three financial years;
• Check the apportionment basis applied to your unit;
• Request the contracts, expiry dates and cancellation terms;
• Identify exceptional costs that have been included within routine service charges;
• Prepare one question for each cost item, without losing focus.

Voting, recording a request and challenging a decision

At the annual general meeting, the vote to approve the accounts is a crucial moment. If the explanations remain vague or an expense appears unjustified, a leaseholder can vote against it and ask for their objection to be clearly entered in the minutes. They can also propose competitive tendering for the managing agent, insurer, heating engineer or cleaning company. A vote creates a record, and that record matters.

One common mistake is to stop paying service-charge demands in an attempt to “make yourself heard”. This is risky: approved charges remain payable unless a decision has been cancelled or amended. The sensible approach is to pay the requested sums while challenging the resolution through the appropriate procedure. A shared-ownership building cannot operate properly under the pressure of arrears, even where the anger is entirely justified.

An absent leaseholder or one who voted against a resolution may challenge an annual-general-meeting decision before the Judicial Court, in principle within two months of notification of the minutes. The deadline is strict, so it is better to consult a solicitor, a leaseholder association or the local housing information agency promptly where significant sums are involved. Challenging is not obstructing: it means requiring the rules, voting majorities and accounts to be respected.

A 30% increase can also provide a collective wake-up call

A tense annual general meeting is never especially pleasant, particularly when everyone arrives with their own budget, concerns and certainties. Even so, the buildings that cope best are often those where two or three people agree to review the figures together, without turning every discussion into a settling of scores. An active residents’ committee can monitor contracts, seek quotations and raise warnings before the bill becomes unaffordable.

The issue extends beyond challenging a single accounting entry. A 30% rise raises questions about how the building is managed, its standard of maintenance and the savings that can genuinely be made without worsening daily life. Cutting heating without an assessment may create discomfort; switching supplier solely because it is cheaper may cost more a year later. The right question remains straightforward: what are we paying for, why, and with what result?

In some buildings, identifying a budgetary drift leads to highly practical measures: installing water meters, commissioning an energy audit, renegotiating insurance, checking cleaning hours or creating a working group of leaseholders. These steps do not promise an immediate miracle. They do, however, restore some control over a cost that had seemed out of control, and that is already a great deal.

Key point	Detail	Benefit for the reader
Review the accounts over three years	Comparing accounting schedules, invoices, contracts and service-charge demands makes it possible to identify the true source of the increase: energy, water, insurance, maintenance or exceptional expenditure.	Avoid challenging costs blindly and focus action on the items that are genuinely unusual.
Prepare for the annual general meeting	Inspect supporting documents before the meeting, ask specific questions and request that a resolution on competitive tendering for a supplier is recorded.	Influence decisions instead of discovering answers under pressure between votes.
Follow the challenge procedure	Vote against the proposal, have the objection recorded and monitor the two-month period after notification of the minutes for proceedings before the Judicial Court.	Protect rights without unnecessarily exposing yourself to arrears or an out-of-time challenge.