Skip to main content
CLOSE

Charities

Close

Corporate and Commercial

Close

Employment and Immigration

Close

Fraud and Investigations

Close

Individuals

Close

Litigation

Close

Planning, Infrastructure and Regeneration

Close

Public Law

Close

Real Estate

Close

Restructuring and Insolvency

Close

Energy

Close

Entrepreneurs

Close

Private Wealth

Close

Real Estate

Close

Tech and Innovation

Close

Transport and Infrastructure

Close
Home / News and Insights / Blogs / Real Estate / 202: Tenant successfully challenges service charge despite landlord’s certificate being ‘conclusive’

The High Court has held that a tenant could challenge whether sums were properly due under a service charge, despite the lease containing a clause making the landlord’s service charge certificate ‘conclusive’.

The tenant, Blacks Outdoor shops, had covenanted in its lease to pay a ‘fair and reasonable proportion’ of the total service costs. At the end of each service charge year, the landlord had to provide the tenant with a certificate of the amount payable by the tenant.

The lease stated that the ‘certificate was conclusive in the absence of manifest or mathematical error or fraud’ and prevented the tenant from claiming any right to set-off or counterclaim of sums due under the lease.

The landlord provided service charge certificates, but the tenant did not pay the sums claimed during the course of the next two service charge years as there was a dispute. The landlord issued proceedings for summary money judgment against the tenant. The tenant counter-claimed that some of the works paid for by the service charge were unnecessary, and that some of the costs related to repair works did not fall within the landlord’s repairing obligations.

The High Court held that the certificate was conclusive as to the amount of the actual costs incurred, absent manifest or mathematical error, or fraud. However, it was not conclusive as to the question of whether those costs fell properly within the scope of the service charge payable by the tenant.

It was not necessary to define exhaustively the circumstances in which a certificate was conclusive. It was sufficient to say that the certificate was not conclusive in relation to the matters raised by the tenant. The tenant was therefore entitled to challenge the sum claim by the landlord based on the certificates and the landlord’s appeal was dismissed.

This case is a useful precedent for a tenant where a landlord is relying on its own certification to prevent genuine disputes about the sums properly recoverable under the service charge.

Sara & Hossein Asset Holdings Limited v Blacks Outdoor Retail Limited [2020] EWHC 1263 (Ch), 2020 WL 02541992

Related Articles

Our Offices

London
One Bartholomew Close
London
EC1A 7BL

Cambridge
50/60 Station Road
Cambridge
CB1 2JH

Reading
The Anchorage, 34 Bridge Street
Reading RG1 2LU

Southampton
Grosvenor House, Grosvenor Square
Southampton SO15 2BE

 

Reading
The Anchorage, 34 Bridge Street
Reading RG1 2LU

Southampton
Grosvenor House, Grosvenor Square
Southampton SO15 2BE

  • Lexcel
  • CYBER ESSENTIALS PLUS

© BDB Pitmans 2024. One Bartholomew Close, London EC1A 7BL - T +44 (0)345 222 9222

Our Services

Charities chevron
Corporate and Commercial chevron
Employment and Immigration chevron
Fraud and Investigations chevron
Individuals chevron
Litigation chevron
Planning, Infrastructure and Regeneration chevron
Public Law chevron
Real Estate chevron
Restructuring and Insolvency chevron

Sectors and Groups

Private Wealth chevron
Real Estate chevron
Transport and Infrastructure chevron