SERVICE CHARGE ADMINISTRATION

Service Charge Administration is a service designed to assist tenants.
Property Solutions review all demands, budgets and certificates to ensure that the charges made are correct and reasonable, providing advice to tenants regarding payments to be made. The process provides an independant audit of payments and identifies possible savings opportunities. Monthly reports and periodic budget forecasts can also be provided to meet tenant's requirements process of reviewing and authorising service charge demands received from landlords on an ongoing basis.

WHAT DO PROPERTY SOLUTIONS DO?

• Receive service charge certificates budgets and invoices.
• Check demands for errors.
• Compare costs against benchmarks.
• Compare costs against previous payments.
• Review lease and determine liability for charges demanded.
• Analyse certificates and budgets.
• Consider apportionment issue.
• Provide advice on level of payment to be made.
• Provide budget advice.
• Consider economics of achieving savings.
• Correspondence with landlords and agents regarding matters of clarification or dispute.

PARTNERSHIP

Property Solutions will work closely with you in setting up and running the service to make sure your requirements are met.

Property Solutions will agree with you:

• Criteria for payment and investigation of demands.
• Methodology for access to information.
• Communication points and processes.
• Reporting requirements.

SAVINGS

The Service Charge Administration process may achieve savings through the identification of errors made by landlords or their agents. Depending on the nature of the dispute, these negotiations may be handled by the experts in Property Solutions Service Charge Consultancy or Building Services teams.

FEES

These are negotiated with each client to reflect the level of service required. Service Charge Administration can be either a retained fee, set fee per location or on a time charge basis. Consultancy can be either a time charge or based on a percentage of any savings achieved.

BENEFITS

• Administration contracts are often self–funding.
• Overall service charge levels reduced compared to portfolios without administration.
• Provides an independent audit of outgoing service charge costs and assurance that demands are charged in accordance with clients’ leases.
• It provides an opportunity to identify and challenge costs that do not appear to be fair and reasonable, especially in the case of extraordinary costs, which can be identified at an early stage.
• The responsibility of ensuring that demands are correct and reasonable is taken by Property Solutions thus relieving surveyors of the administrative workload.

Click here to see case studies