How often do tribunals reduce buildings insurance charges?
Across 1,621 individually challenged buildings insurance items in First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions from 2019–2026, 40.7% were reduced or disallowed; where the tribunal made a reduction, the median was 43.7% (n=266 reductions with amounts stated). (n=1,621, as of 15 August 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 | 405 | 25% |
| Disallowed entirely | 255 | 15.7% |
| Allowed in full | 904 | 55.8% |
| Withdrawn | 24 | 1.5% |
Most common grounds when the tribunal cut the charge
- Costs unreasonably incurred (s19(1)(a)) — 267 items
- Undisclosed insurance commission — 38 items
- Landlord could not evidence the cost — 161 items
- Not payable under the lease — 121 items
- Demand formally invalid — 67 items
- Other grounds — 68 items
- Insurance not market tested — 150 items
- Apportionment error — 70 items
By tribunal region
| Region | Items (n) | Reduced or disallowed | Median reduction when reduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 932 | 43.1% | 40.6% |
| Eastern | 195 | 27.7% | 19.7% |
| Southern | 248 | 47.6% | 60.6% |
| Midlands | 80 | 40% | 48% |
| Northern | 166 | 32.5% | 46% |
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.