On Friday 10th July, SHAC received fresh communication from the National Audit Office (NAO), for the first time concurring with SHAC that there is a serious gap in regulatory oversight when it comes to service charges paid by councils using Housing Benefit, although they do not agree with all our conclusions. For some tenants, the… Continue reading Service Charge Abuse: Audit Office Validates SHAC Risk Evidence and Campaigners Win Landmark Ruling
By David Wood I became a banker in 2007. The lesson I took from the financial crisis was not that banks should cease to exist. It was that systems which appear robust on paper can contain weaknesses that only become visible when the system is stressed. Safeguards should be tested rather than assumed. Looking at… Continue reading The Three Closed Doors: A Stress Test of Leasehold Accountability
New data from SHAC's comprehensive national survey of 829 residents has exposed an environment of widespread service charge abuse, directly challenging the government’s refusal to protect tenants and leaseholders. full report: Landlord Service Charge Abuse Survey - MAY 2026 PETITION: Allow disputed service charges to be paid to courts In April 2026, the Secretary of… Continue reading Mass Survey Exposes Rampant Service Charge Abuse as Housing Minister Rejects Caps
How Landlords are Siphoning Millions in Unearned Service Charges from the Welfare State A new investigation by SHAC reveals a systemic failure in the Housing Benefit system, allowing landlords to overcharge the taxpayer by millions of pounds while the government looks the other way. Download the report: Service Charges & Housing Benefit report It is… Continue reading The Great Housing Benefit Heist
New research carried out by SHAC shows that across all the cases of service charges challenged at the First Tier Property Tribunal (FTT), more than 63% of landlords were found to be overcharging for services. This figure rises to more than 66% for housing association landlords. The overcharges in many of the cases were replicated… Continue reading SHAC Research Finds Overcharging in More Than 63% of Tribunal Cases
More than 100 activists gathered in person and online on the 11th October to plan a national tenants and residents (housing) union. The event was organised by SHAC as the basis for forming an independent action group that can transform the vision into reality. Attendees included those leading local action on their estates, regional groups… Continue reading Conference Agrees to Build a Housing Union
By Michael Savell, SHAC Committee Member It appears that anyone who rents a flat, or was unfortunate enough to have bought a share of a flat through shared ownership, has the same issues. High and unregulated service charges being one of the major complaints that SHAC and other campaign groups receive. What is not generally… Continue reading Invisible Tenants, Forgotten Victims
By a Twenty-Twenty Resident Twenty-Twenty House A is an attractive, modern apartment block in the trendy Mabgate area of Leeds. Twenty-Twenty A houses 30 apartments, most of which are occupied by homeowners with full or shared ownership leases of (initially) 99 years. On a first take, everything at Twenty-Twenty A looks sharp: it is in… Continue reading A 20-20 Vision of How Social Housing Landlords Fleece Leaseholders
Just one year ago, a community of women from mainly Bengali migrant and refugee backgrounds living in the east end of London would probably not have described themselves as grass-roots housing activists. Yet their substandard housing conditions left them keen to fight for better, and their ESOL (English language) class gave them both the perfect… Continue reading SHAC and English for Action: Empowering Community Housing Action
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… Continue reading Tenants and Residents Turn to Radical Action
