Case studies
Confidential client
Saving £2.45m by challenging the superior landlord service charge We robustly challenged 2 years service charges which included huge year on year increases- Location London
- Key figures £2.45m saving on a 175,000 sq ft office building
- Additional Information Ben Corbin, +44 (0) 20 7484 8151
The results
- Our client saved £2.45m service charges over two years
- We demonstrated to the superior landlord that our client would only accept tight, streamlined budgeting in future; all budgets would be challenged
- Our client was able to run the building to lease end within their original funding estimate without having to request further funding internally
The challenges
- Our client inherited the lease of the building through an acquisition. It had no requirement to occupy the space which was largely sub let to a variety of tenants. All sub leases bar the acquired business were subject to service charge caps set at around £10psf. In 2008-2009 the service charge was increased by £1M, the majority of which would hit our client due to the caps.
What we did
- We undertook a line by line examination of the service charge budget
- Our team wrote to the superior landlord and challenged each line item
- A team of specialist M&E engineers examined the lifting equipment and plant rooms as most of the budgetary increase was M&E related
- We requested copies of all reports that formed the basis for equipment replacement
- Following an unsatisfactory response from the landlord’s agent we withheld all the disputed service charge (£1M in the first year, £1.5M in the second year)
English