Leasehold

Where a report pairs a service-charge budget with balcony works, what stays open about a survey that does not audit the invoice?

Whether the money matches the work stays open, because the survey does not audit the invoice. A service-charge budget is an accounts paper for the block. Balcony works are a building item the survey may have seen as scaffold, a new deck or a line in the papers. Pairing them does not check the sums, the receipts or whether the lease lets the cost be recovered. The survey can describe the balcony it saw. It cannot audit a budget. The report has not decided that any figure is fair, complete or even tied to the defect in front of it.

Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.

What is the fuller explanation?

Service charges are spent by whoever manages the block, against a budget leaseholders can ask to see. A surveyor is not an accountant and does not tick invoices back to that budget. Balcony works might be finished, part done or only proposed. The condition of the balcony, if it was visible, is a building fact. The budget line is a money fact from a document the survey is not auditing. The gap between them is the point that stays open: nobody in this visit reconciled one to the other.

Ask the solicitor to obtain the service-charge budget and the invoices for the balcony works, and to read them against the lease. Tell the managing agent the survey will not do that audit. If the balcony itself needs a condition view beyond what was seen, say so separately from the money. Do not treat a budget total as a repair specification. The report described a building, or named works. It did not sign off the account.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Did you see the balcony, the budget, or both, and which was only named?
Has any invoice been checked against the works, or left unaudited?
Does the survey stay silent on whether the lease allows the cost?

What are the typical next steps?

Keep the balcony condition separate from the service-charge papers.
Ask the solicitor to read the budget and the invoices against the lease.
Do not treat the survey as an audit of the account.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

If the budget mentions balconies, have the works been done?

Not necessarily. A service-charge budget can name balcony works that are proposed, in hand or already finished. The survey does not audit the invoice and may only have seen part of the building. Mention in a budget is not proof of completion. Ask the agent for the invoices and for what is still outstanding. The report has not reconciled the two.

Can a leaseholder challenge the figures from the survey alone?

The survey is not the route for that challenge. It does not audit invoices and does not decide what the lease allows. A condition note on a balcony is a building comment. The solicitor and the formal process for service charges are where the figures are questioned. Do not expect this report to carry that argument.