‘I’m trying not to turn the heating on’: The pensioner leaseholders seeing service charges rise by up to 2,500%

Pensioners living in leasehold properties have told how the combination of soaring service charges, rising bills and the removal of the winter fuel payment for some is pushing their finances to breaking point this winter.

While service charge hikes are a challenge for all leaseholders, pensioners face a particular struggle because they are on a fixed income. 

Where working leaseholders might see their wages increase over time, those relying on a pension have little choice but to allow the charge to eat up more of their income. 

Though the state pension increases every year, leaseholders we have spoken to have seen their charges rise at a rate which far outpaces that. 

This is Money has spoken to older leaseholders, including a 96-year-old who has seen her charge rise 223 per cent since 2010 to almost £4,200, and one who has seen her monthly estate charge rise by more than 2,500 per cent year-on-year. 

Another faces a demand for a one-off ‘top-up’ payment of £1,200, and says he will struggle with heating bills this winter as a result. 

The state pension will rise by 4.1 per cent in 2025, to £230.25 per week. Private pension payments don’t tend to increase over time. 

Many older people prefer to live in flats because they are easier to get around if their mobility fails, and with their smaller size can also be simpler to maintain and cheaper to heat.

They may also feel safer living in a block with services such as a reception desk or security cameras.

While some live in a specialist retirement development, these are relatively few in number and many more will opt for a leasehold flat on the mainstream market.

Service charges go towards the upkeep of the building and any communal areas.

It can include the costs of buildings insurance, cleaning, gardening, repairs of communal areas, surveyors’ fees, fire risk assessments and managing agents’ fees.

According to data published by estate agent Hamptons last week, the average leasehold service charge increased by 11 per cent in 2024, hitting £2,300. 

It said just over half of leaseholders are paying more in service charges than they are in council tax.

But some are paying far more. Sheila Hughes, aged 96, has lived in her apartment in Lisburn Square in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, since 2010 and will pay a total of £4,197 for service charges in the current billing year. 

For someone taking the full state pension from April 2025 at £11,973 per year, that would represent more than a third of their annual income. 

When Sheila moved in, the charge was around £1,300 per year, which means it has more than tripled. Had it risen at the rate of inflation, it would have been £1,971 today. 

‘I got into this flat in 2010, thinking I might not live too much longer – but I am still here now aged 96,’ Sheila told This is Money. ‘I wanted to be close to the shops and doctors surgery, things like that. 

‘Lots of people here are elderly, one lady here was a war widow.’

Meeting the extra cost, she says, will be a real struggle. ‘My [private] pension hasn’t gone up at all, and I won’t get the heating allowance this year.’ 

To try and cut costs, she says the residents at Lisburn Square asked for the heating to be turned off in the hallways. The lights have also been put on motion sensors. 

While the cost has gone up, Sheila claims that the standard of the service provided has gone down.

‘They haven’t changed the carpets in the corridor since I have lived here, and they’re getting worn,’ she says. ‘We used to get our windows cleaned every month, but it has only happened once or twice in the last decade.’

Sheila claims the leaseholds have asked to meet with the freeholder, a property investment company called Marcol, but the requests have been ignored. 

Marcol, which has owned Lisburn Square since 2015, did not reply to requests for comment. 

Sheila also says the leaseholders have not been given invoices to prove the cost of any work which has been paid for out of the service charge.

The flats are part of a mixed-use development which also includes shops and restaurants. This initially attracted Sheila to the development, but she says that more recently it has become a nuisance. 

‘[The complex] is open late at night. There are undesirables and they cause a lot of damage. ‘When there is a fire alarm, nobody goes out because it could be a fake.’

‘I am here on my own during the night. From being so happy and content when I came here, it’s all gone wrong.

‘I’m an old lady now, and was hoping to have a nice, happy old age. But this is really starting to get me down.’

The flats were managed by CBRE Northern Ireland until January 2025, at which point it was taken over by Lisney.

CBRE Northern Ireland said: ‘We were appointed by the landlord to manage Lisburn Square, but ceased involvement on 6 January after providing notice in August 2024. We would advise tenants to speak to their landlord regarding any issues.’

Lisney did not reply to a request for comment.

‘If the charge rises again, do I become homeless?’ 

Widower Robert Summers-Roberts, 75, is retired after spending his working life in France and the UK as an interior architect and designer. 

He lives in a modern, terraced-style house in the Thornton-Cleveleys district, not far from Blackpool in Lancashire. It is owned by the housing association Places for People, and managed by RMG.

Robert is deaf, and has various other medical issues.

Since buying his property in 2017, he has seen the monthly service charge increase by 96 per cent, from £115 per month to £224. The bulk of that increase came at the start of the current billing year, when it rocketed from £142 to £224, a rise of 58 per cent.

He has also been sent a demand for a ‘top-up’ payment this year at £1,203, which means he will be paying almost £3,900 in service charges this year. 

He says he is trying not to turn the heating on this winter to save money, and if the charge goes up any more next year, he won’t be able to pay and is worried that he will become homeless.

‘We are pensioners, we have fixed incomes. I cannot afford to live in this property next year if the increases continue,’ he says. ‘Do I become homeless, as they will seize my property?’

Robert claims the leaseholders in his cul-de-sac haven’t been informed as to why the service charge has risen so much, or what the top-up payment was for.

He is now anxiously waiting to hear the amount of next year’s service charge, which he will begin to pay in April. 

‘If they repeat this years increase at nearly 60 per cent there will be dismay, and depression,’ he says. ‘I will be very pushed with any such increase, with all the other increases in this life we have such as council tax, and the loss of heating allowance’. 

Summers-Roberts believes the leasehold system is unfair and ripe for reform. 

‘What we have is the remains of a medieval concept that has been allowed to prosper,’ he says. ‘I am so depressed to live in England, I should never have come back after living and working in France, for nearly 20 years.’

This is Money contacted Places for People, which said the service charge factored in the costs of managing the property and essential maintenance works.

It said it communicated any increases to customers in advance and offered a full breakdown of costs.

A spokesperson for RMG said it informed residents of the current year’s increase in February 2024. 

‘Services charges – which also usually need to rise alongside inflation – are set at a value to cover the costs of managing the property each year,’ it said. 

‘The increase to the monthly service charge this year is due mainly to a number of essential improvement works which were needed to the building, including redecoration, upgrading the social alarm system, and drain clearance.

It said the additional £1,203 charge was for ‘essential and unforeseen’ works including roof, drainage, and guttering repairs. RMG added that ‘All customers are given a reasonable time to pay and are asked to call us to discuss any concerns.’

It also said: ‘We understand and empathise with the concerns of residents but all works have been essential and have been completed in their best interests. As always, we have offered a detailed breakdown of all costs. 

‘We never want to see anyone struggling to meet costs and as part of our communication with residents have offered payment plans to accommodate varying financial situations and recently held a site meeting to address any queries or concerns.’

‘I want to stop paying, but fear the consequences’

Retired Marion Cowell Ward lives in a semi-detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac near Buntingford in Hertfordshire.

It is a former local authority property which was purchased by a previous owner under Right to Buy. Although she owns the home freehold, Marion must pay a service charge to the housing association which manages the estate.

For this payment year, the monthly service charge she is required to pay has gone from £9.74 per month to £257.36 per month – an increase of more than 2,500 per cent, and more than one week’s worth of the full state pension. 

She has been told this is due to an underestimation of the maintenance costs in the previous year.

‘I am a pensioner with no other income, I cant afford to pay this,’ she says. ‘I want to stop my direct debit, but I fear the consequences.’

She says there are few services delivered by Clarion in the close – just communal lighting and electricity in the two flats on the road.

Marion also says her neighbours will pay a different amount, £177 per month, despite living in a near-identical property.

A Clarion spokesperson said: ‘We appreciate that unexpected costs like these can be difficult to manage and we encourage our customers to reach out to us if they are struggling.

‘This increase was primarily due to one-off sewer works carried out in May and June 2023 to unblock a difficult to access discharge point.

‘Service charges are levied in accordance with the underlying agreements of individual properties. Ms Cowell Ward’s service charge differs from her neighbours’ as this street shares a variety of agreement types with differing liability for service charges.

Clarion added that it would contact her to discuss a ‘manageable’ payment plan, and confirmed that her estimated service charges for the next billing year would be ‘considerably lower’.

Katie Kendrick, of the National Leasehold Campaign, said: ‘These cases are truly heartbreaking. It is outrageous that one of the most vulnerable groups in our society are being exploited by rip-off service charges later in life when they should be enjoying their retirement.

‘Like so many others, they were sold a dream that turned out to be a nightmare, trapped in the leasehold maze with no way out. Many are left feeling lost, powerless and exploited.

‘Leasehold is a grotesquely unfair system that continues to destroy people’s lives until the bitter end.

‘It is a fundamental right to feel safe in our homes, Leasehold does not offer this security. This Government must work at pace to redress the balance and protect leaseholders’.