Commercial and Residential Service Charges is a new title covering this complex area of law for both residential and commercial property. This new title looks at the issues practitioners face when advising clients on service charge disputes including accountability for service charges, budgetary control and certification of actual costs incurred.
Commercial and Residential Service Charges covers the following:
History and Overview: What is a service charge; Leasehold and freehold charges (estate rent charges); Historical statutory background; General approach to construction; Codes of practice;
Items for which charges can be made: Repairs, maintenance etc; Insurance; Managing agents; Staff; Legal fees; Reserve funds; Borrowing costs; Sweep up clauses; Marketing costs;
Service charge Machinery: Interim and balancing payments (estimates); Conditions precedent (certifications and accounts); Conclusiveness of certificates; Reserve and sinking funds; Trusts; Proportions; Index-linked charges;
Statutory Regulation: Residential Legislation (1985 Act, 2002 Act); General Legislation (UCTA and Consumer Regulations); Public Sector;
Remedies: Forfeiture; Recovery of overpayment by tenants; Set off; Determinations by LVT: s.27A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
There are other textbooks that cover the same subject matter; indeed there are others that are equally comprehensive. But there are none written with the clarity and authority of this 600-page weighty tome from Bloomsbury Professional?Armed with a copy of Commercial and Residential Service Charges the diligent practitioner will be better placed to put the ignorant, the crafty or the mystifying litigant in his place.
