Incorrect Service Defeats Service Charge Claim

Landlords seeking to recover service charges in circumstances which require that a notice be served on the tenants should make sure they serve the relevant notice correctly! In a recent case, a landlord had to do works on a building and sought to recover the cost via the service charge to the tenants. In the usual way, a notice was served on the tenants.

However, one of the tenants had moved out of her flat and sublet it to a new tenant. The former tenant had passed her new address on to the landlord’s managing agents, but they failed to pass it on. The effect of this error was that when the notice was served, it was sent to the flat, not the tenant’s new address.

The landlord sought to recover the service charge and the tenant declined to pay on the ground that she had not been served with the notice.

The Lands Tribunal agreed with the tenant. The lease required the notice to be sent to her last known place of abode or affixed to the flat. By sending it to the flat, the landlord had not complied with the terms of service.

The moral for landlords is to double check that you get the service of notices right or you may find that you are not able to recover repair costs from your tenants via the service charge.