Equal Payments

“Equal” a small word with big consequences when it comes to service charges. More often than not a lease will state payments made on a series of dates must be equal. This means you can not increase or decrease the charge later in the year, even for a valid reason.

It is important you understand what the annual consequence of your service charge budget will be. Are you tying yourself to a budget for the whole year, come what may. Or do you have a mechanism to save you from a sticky situation?

Your budget should be planned in accordance with this. Where equal payments are required you should be more cautious and budget to cover more unforeseen circumstances. If you have flexibility you may be able to use this to provide a tighter, lower cost budget for leaseholders.