How often do tribunals reduce buildings insurance charges?
Across 1,224 individually challenged buildings insurance items in First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions from 2019–2026, 41.3% were reduced or disallowed; where the tribunal made a reduction, the median was 45.6% (n=212 reductions with amounts stated). (n=1,224, as of 4 July 2026)
The figures on this page cover every individually challenged buildings insurance 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 buildings insurance items
| Outcome | Items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced | 309 | 25.2% |
| Disallowed entirely | 197 | 16.1% |
| Allowed in full | 674 | 55.1% |
| Withdrawn | 19 | 1.6% |
Most common grounds when the tribunal cut the charge
- Other grounds — 52 items
- Apportionment error — 58 items
- Not payable under the lease — 99 items
- Demand formally invalid — 59 items
- No Section 21B summary of rights — 26 items
- Insurance not market tested — 125 items
- Landlord could not evidence the cost — 108 items
- Costs unreasonably incurred (s19(1)(a)) — 202 items
By tribunal region
| Region | Items (n) | Reduced or disallowed | Median reduction when reduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlands | 62 | 38.7% | 48% |
| Eastern | 149 | 28.2% | 17.7% |
| Southern | 202 | 47.5% | 61.1% |
| Northern | 135 | 36.3% | 46.2% |
| London | 676 | 43.6% | 43.7% |
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: 2,383 decisions covering 12,898 individually disputed items, last updated 4 July 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.