How often do tribunals reduce cleaning charges?
Across 848 individually challenged cleaning items in First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions from 2019–2026, 43.5% were reduced or disallowed; where the tribunal made a reduction, the median was 40% (n=171 reductions with amounts stated). (n=848, as of 15 August 2026)
The figures on this page cover every individually challenged cleaning item in our corpus of published First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions, and are recomputed nightly.
About these figures: Outcomes reflect disputes that reached the First-tier Tribunal, not portfolio-wide quality. Small samples are noisy; every figure links to the underlying decisions.
Outcomes for challenged cleaning items
| Outcome | Items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced | 234 | 27.6% |
| Disallowed entirely | 135 | 15.9% |
| Allowed in full | 448 | 52.8% |
| Withdrawn | 15 | 1.8% |
Most common grounds when the tribunal cut the charge
- Standard not reasonable (s19(1)(b)) — 22 items
- Costs unreasonably incurred (s19(1)(a)) — 181 items
- Landlord could not evidence the cost — 125 items
- Not payable under the lease — 43 items
- Other grounds — 18 items
- Poor standard of work — 57 items
- Apportionment error — 13 items
- Works not necessary — 17 items
By tribunal region
| Region | Items (n) | Reduced or disallowed | Median reduction when reduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 506 | 45.8% | 48.1% |
| Eastern | 109 | 35.8% | 33% |
| Southern | 101 | 57.4% | 50.5% |
| Midlands | 70 | 28.6% | 20% |
| Northern | 62 | 32.3% | 45% |
Methodology
These statistics are computed from the published decisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in service charge cases (case types LSC, LIS and LDC). Each decision is parsed into a structured record — the sums challenged, the sums allowed, the outcome per cost head, and the orders made — and the aggregates on this page are recomputed nightly in plain arithmetic from those records. No figure on this page is estimated, modelled or hand-typed; each carries its sample size. Current corpus: 4,244 decisions covering 18,031 individually disputed items, last updated 15 August 2026.
Read this before quoting: Outcomes reflect disputes that reached the First-tier Tribunal, not portfolio-wide quality. Small samples are noisy; every figure links to the underlying decisions.