Disputing your service charge

A dispute is when you do not agree with your homeowner service charges because you think:

• we have not provided you with a service you have paid for;
• the quality of works carried out are not to an acceptable standard;
• that costs are not reasonable or payable under the terms of your lease;
• or statutory consultation was not carried out correctly.

Raise a dispute

You must raise your dispute as soon as you can after receiving your service charge invoice. We cannot investigate historic charges.

Our dispute resolution process is designed to make sure:

• it is easy for you to register your dispute;
• your dispute gets resolved quickly;
• and that if something is wrong we put it right.

Raise your service charge dispute

How we will resolve your dispute

Depending on the type and nature of your concerns we may arrange to meet you to carry out an inspection of your property, block or estate.

A manager will review the information provided following the investigation and decide whether your dispute is upheld, partially upheld or not upheld. If fully or partially upheld they will decide what we need to do to put things right.

We will notify you of our decision within 10 working days of receiving your dispute or let you know if we are unable to meet this timescale and give you a revised one.

If you're not satisfied with our response

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can ask for your dispute to be reviewed by a more senior manager.

A decision will be made about whether the original outcome is upheld, partly upheld, or overturned. If partly upheld or overturned, we will tell you if we need to do anything else to put things right.

We will respond within 20 working days of receiving your request to be investigated at this stage. If we need more time to respond to you, we will let you know.

Independent advice

We hope our dispute resolution process will help us to sort out any dispute you may have but if you're not satisfied with our decision, you can get independent advice:

The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) is an independent body that can provide free advice on residential leasehold issues.

If you're still not satisfied, you can challenge the charges at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) which is administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. You may have to pay a fee so we recommend seeking legal advice before applying to them.

Contact us

• Email address: homeownership@islington.gov.uk
• Postal address: Home Ownership Services, 222 Upper Street, London, N1 1XR.