Property Services
Service Charge Accounting
Service charges are paid by tenants / leaseholders to landlords / residents' management company or right to manage company. Service charges are a contractual obligation between the management company and the leaseholders. Most management companies/ or landlords, per legislation, are required to prepare an annual account and a service charge account for tenants / leaseholders under the provisions of Section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
As accountants, we prepare both statutory accounts and service charge accounts for landlords, housing associations and management companies among others.
A service charge is an amount payable by a tenant in respect of services, repairs, maintenance, insurance, improvements or costs of management, the amount will vary according to the costs actually incurred.
If the service charge is fixed under the terms of the lease or tenancy agreement, e.g, as part of the rent payable by the tenant, this is referred as fixed service charge. The service charge provisions of LTA 1985 and LTA 1987 do not apply to fixed service charges.
We have a portfolio of clients for which we provide service charge accounting and auditing services. As a result we have the technical expertise and experience to deal with accounts for management companies and landlords. We provide a personalised service to all our clients.