When the new round of service charge demands began to take effect at the start of April, SHAC found itself supporting a host of new tenant and resident groups embarking on service charge strikes.
Tenants and residents are often presented as being helpless in the face of superior landlord power, with their bottomless resources, ready access to government decision-makers, and slick marketing machines.
It can sometimes feel as though no public authority is able to effectively hold them to account. After going through the landlord’s complaints system, itself a protracted process, the options for taking a case to the Housing Ombudsman Service, First Tier Tribunal, or Regulator of Social Housing are all problematic because the unequal power between landlord and tenant always gives the landlord the upper hand.
Even a success through one of these routes rarely results in landlord compliance with its legal obligations, court orders, recognition of overcharging, or action on repairs. And the sanction for non-complaince is negligible.
Under these circumstances, it is inevitable that tenants and residents turn to withholding their rent or service charge payments, sometimes working with neighbours.
SHAC on Hand
SHAC offers practical support and assistance to groups and individuals who plan to withhold payment when they get nowhere using the landlord’s internal complaints system or by appealing to the authorities. It helps tenants and residents to minimise the risk of retaliatory legal action by landlords.
Over the last two months SHAC has been inundated with enquiries from groups who are starting a payment strike, mainly over inaccurate service charges, all too often combined with persistent disrepairs.
Withholding payment is a powerful way to get the landlord’s attention on an issue, but it is depressing and regrettable that people have to go to these lengths when a simple email or phone call should be enough to resolve a problem.
Although landlords say they could take legal action in such cases, in five years of supporting service charge strikes, SHAC has found that most do not. Generally this appears to be because landlords know that they would not be able to justify their actions – failure to carry out repairs, or service charge miscalculations – if they had to explain them in court.
Here, we share some of our members’ experiences, with their permission:
Alice, a Clarion Housing Group tenant, started withholding service charges quite a few years ago. Her tenancy agreement specified that the cost of service delivery was included in her rent.
When Clarion asked her to pay a separate service charge on top, she took legal advice that confirmed she was not liable for extra payments. Nonetheless, Clarion continues to badger her to pay more. Alice cannot afford more: she is on a state pension and doesn’t qualify for pension credit. She adds:
“I’ve been asking for 11 years for Clarion to do the cyclical repairs – rotting window frames, all the paint peeled off, the roof needs repair to stop damp coming in to flat, guttering needs clearing, communal carpet in the hall hasn’t been changed for about 30 years. Nothing has been done”.
Barry has been a Guinness Housing Trust tenant since 1990 and felt compelled to withhold some of his service charge payment. Barry acknowledges that some charges are legitimate and says that he and his neighbours are “happy to pay our service charges, as they include important health and safety and essential repairs.” However, he also notes:
“We’ve had roof leaks since 2010, we’ve had rat infestations since 2014, even though each household has been charged £50 per year for pest control services that didn’t happen … they say they will do repairs and don’t act.
“I have followed every path open to me but people who raise such concerns using the Guinness complaints procedure become a target. I have been subject to victimisation, harassment, and revenge eviction attempts with false accusations of rent arrears only for the case to be dismissed by the courts because I had receipts for rent payments.”
The majority of those withholding payment are from the larger landlords:
- Jen, a Peabody Housing resident living near Stevenage said “I am withholding my service charge as I am in a shared ownership house. Zero communal areas and the monthly charge has increased from £12 per month to £76. They do not carry out any work in my Close at all. It’s a total scam.”
- Amir is a shared owner with a 25% share of a flat in east London. He recently began withholding payment from his landlord, L&Q, because “my service charge increased from £330 to £530 per month. I have no means to pay such an amount, and I feel I am being forced to leave my flat”.
- Mohammad, a Clarion Housing Group tenant in south London says that he has been withholding payment since 2015. He won his case at Tribunal because Clarion was unable to provide any evidence of the legitimacy of their charges, but the landlord continues to send bills.
- Louise, a resident with Places for People in Yorkshire, said that residents in her block are withholding because “they have increased the service charges from £505 a month to £605 a month. They are trying to charge us over £2,000 per month for the communal lighting on four floors”.
- Simon, an Abri resident living near Portsmouth said that residents on his estate were withholding their heating charge after it increased by 100%. Abri has admitted that the charge was an error but has still failed to correct it.
There are also some residents from smaller associations such as Thomas, a resident of Leeds Jewish Housing Association, who has been withholding payment for some time over irregularities with their service charge accounts, and overcharging on some items.
Some are now from councils, such as Jade and Mina:
- Jade, a Hackney Council resident said that she and around 40 others living in her block are withholding half of their service charge each month because of serious disrepairs, including malfunctioning lifts, leaks and mould, a dangerous stairwell which is their only fire exit, fly-tipping, and infestations of ants, rats, mice a cockroaches resulting from a build up of waste.
- Mina, a Lambeth Council leaseholder, has been withholding her service charge since the middle of 2023 because they have escalated to a level she considers unreasonable. She notes in particular that the council added “a charge of £2,200 for cutting 3 trees” to their bill.
Those whose service charges are managed by private firms also sometimes adopt this tactic. Adil for example explained that he was withholding part of his payments to managing agents, Rendall and Rittner, because “balancing charges [were] imposed on my account without detailed invoices evidencing the justification of such charges.”
SHAC Support
SHAC provides resources and practical support to groups of tenants and residents withholding payment.
- Guide and Checklist – withholding rents or service charges
- Guide to Rent and Service Charge Strikes
- Strike Group
- Striker Resources
Earlier this month, prompted by the large numbers withholding payment, SHAC launched a new network in the form of a WhatsApp group to bring strikers together. The network quickly grew to more than 150 members from across England.
Around half of all strikers are taking action as part of a much wider group on their estate, with the remainder withholding payment individually. The group is open to SHAC members.
8 May 2025
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