How often do tribunals reduce major works charges?
Across 1,488 individually challenged major works items in First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions from 2019–2026, 23.5% were reduced or disallowed; where the tribunal made a reduction, the median was 37.5% (n=135 reductions with amounts stated). (n=1,488, as of 4 July 2026)
The figures on this page cover every individually challenged major works 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 major works items
| Outcome | Items | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced | 177 | 11.9% |
| Disallowed entirely | 172 | 11.6% |
| Allowed in full | 1,091 | 73.3% |
| Withdrawn | 13 | 0.9% |
Most common grounds when the tribunal cut the charge
- Other grounds — 49 items
- Works not necessary — 59 items
- Poor standard of work — 39 items
- Not payable under the lease — 54 items
- Demand formally invalid — 23 items
- Landlord could not evidence the cost — 57 items
- No Section 20 consultation — 98 items
- Costs unreasonably incurred (s19(1)(a)) — 126 items
By tribunal region
| Region | Items (n) | Reduced or disallowed | Median reduction when reduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlands | 93 | 31.2% | 14.3% |
| Eastern | 174 | 21.3% | 61.5% |
| Southern | 285 | 23.9% | 27.9% |
| Northern | 171 | 12.9% | 10% |
| London | 765 | 25.2% | 41.3% |
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.