Leasehold

What should you ask about service charges before you rely on the survey?

Ask the solicitor for the last three years of accounts, the current budget, any reserve fund and any notice of major works. The survey tells you what is wrong with the building. The service charge tells you how the building pays for it. One does not price the other.

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?

Government leasehold guidance explains service charges and the right to challenge them. It does not turn a condition rating into a bill. A rating 3 on a shared roof may become a major-works project that is consulted on and then charged. It may already be in the budget. You will not know until you read the papers. The surveyor of one flat has not read them unless the instruction said they would.

Ask the managing agent for planned works if the solicitor’s pack is thin. Challenge rights exist. They are not a reason to ignore a leaking roof. Budget for the charge you can see in the papers, and treat unseen works as a question, not as a made-up levy.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Which defects are shared, rather than inside this flat?
Which of those would you expect to be expensive enough to be a building project, even though you cannot price it?
Did you see any notice of works pinned up in the block? That is a clue, not the accounts.

What are the typical next steps?

Read the accounts before you rely on a low service charge in the advert.
Match each shared defect in the survey to a line in the budget or to a gap.
Ask the solicitor how a Section 20 consultation would be disclosed if one had started.

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

Is a reserve fund your money if you sell next year?

Often the fund stays with the building. The lease and the accounts say. Do not assume you can withdraw it on completion.

Can you refuse to pay for works the survey found?

Once you are the leaseholder, the lease decides how charges work, and the law gives rights to be consulted and to challenge. That is not the same as a right to ignore a roof. Ask the solicitor.