Know exactly what belongs in your service charge.
Service-charge statements can contain mis-apportioned costs, capital works treated as repairs, undisclosed insurance commissions or management fees above the lease and professional guidance. Chargewise reviews the evidence, identifies supportable queries and helps you pursue a correction.
Demanded this year
£71,344
Provisional adjusted charge
£58,310
Corrected from 10.4% to 8.50% apportionment, with each figure traced to a ground. Your result will reflect your own statement.
Why now
The current standard raises the transparency bar.
The RICS professional standard Service Charges in Commercial Property is in its 2nd edition, effective from 31 December 2025. It contains mandatory requirements for RICS members and regulated firms and detailed best practice on transparency, insurance remuneration, apportionment and year-end reporting. RICS and ICAEW also describe transitional treatment for earlier service-charge periods, so the applicable edition and lease must be checked case by case.
How it works
Three steps, from initial check to supported query.
Upload the statement, review the screening result, then decide whether to appoint us.
Upload your statement
Drop in your service-charge demand, budget or year-end accounts. We read the line items and your apportionment in seconds.
See the findings
The free check screens the supplied figures. If you proceed, the lease and supporting evidence are reviewed before any position is approved.
Pursue a supported correction
Appoint us as your adviser and, after human approval, we can raise the formal query and negotiate a supported refund or future-budget correction. No win, no fee.
What we look for
A real audit, not a sales pitch.
Our engine screens recognised risk categories. Monetary adjustments require supplied lease facts; conditional items remain evidence queries until reviewed.
Overstated apportionment
The allocation and apportionment must follow the lease and be demonstrably fair and reasonable, with a clear matrix showing the basis used.
Void unit costs passed to tenants
The cost attributable to unlet units is the landlord's, not a cost the occupying tenants should absorb.
Improvement or enhancement cost
Improvement and enhancement costs require close review against the lease, reasonable alternatives, cost benefit and any written tenant agreement; landlord investment enhancements should not simply be passed through.
Management fee scope or lease cap
The management fee must reflect the reasonable work and overheads of managing the services, be set as a fixed cost and exclude landlord-only duties such as asset management and rent collection.
Insurance commission disclosure
Insurance remuneration, commission, rebates and related benefits must be disclosed; retention must be reasonable for the work undertaken.
Reserve-fund support required
Reserve contributions must follow the lease, be reasonable, relate to identified expenditure and be supported by a clear calculation and lifecycle assessment.
Plus insurance rebate, lease-cap, catch-all, material-variance and year-end reporting checks. See the full method.
The honest promise
The opposite of a rogue agent.
This sector is full of pushy recovery firms that over-promise and manufacture disputes. We built Chargewise to be the antidote.
- We only advance a reduction the reviewed lease and evidence support.
- We round every figure in the landlord's favour.
- A human reviewer approves every external case action.
- When the check finds no quantified adjustment, we say so plainly.
“We would rather tell you your charge is fair than win you a refund you cannot defend.”
Chargewise acts only on your recorded authority, within the limited commercial service-charge advisory scope set out in the engagement terms. Litigation, binding settlements and third-party costs require separate authority and appropriately regulated advice where needed.
Pricing
Nothing up front. 25% of what we recover.
Our fee is a share of the money we actually save you: the refund plus the reduction to your ongoing annual charge. If we recover nothing, you pay nothing. The free check is genuinely free.
- Free, no-obligation screening check
- No fee unless a reduction is documented
- Fee basis shown before appointment
- Human-approved before external action
Find out whether your statement warrants a closer review.
Upload this year's statement for a preliminary, evidence-led check. Estimates are clearly labelled and no external action occurs without your authority and human approval.