How do service charge challenges fare at the Southern tribunal?
Across 471 First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions heard in the Southern region (2019–2026), 44.9% of 2,248 challenged items were reduced or disallowed; the median reduction, where made, was 46.6%. (n=2,248, as of 4 July 2026)
Cases are assigned to a region by the First-tier Tribunal venue code in the case reference. These figures are recomputed nightly from the published decisions.
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 by cost head in Southern
| Cost head | Items (n) | Reduced or disallowed | Median reduction when reduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gardening & grounds | 81 | 48.1% | 56.7% |
| Other charges | 573 | 44.3% | 57% |
| Cleaning | 92 | 59.8% | 50% |
| Buildings insurance | 202 | 47.5% | 61.1% |
| Repairs & maintenance | 291 | 41.6% | 50% |
| Major works | 285 | 23.9% | 27.9% |
| Lifts | 47 | 8.5% | 55.5% |
| Management fees | 232 | 62.5% | 33.3% |
| Legal & professional costs | 128 | 53.9% | 40.1% |
| Reserve fund contributions | 86 | 38.4% | 49% |
| Administration charges | 89 | 65.2% | 76.3% |
| Utilities | 115 | 47% | 39.1% |
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.