Final accounts

Once each financial year has ended, the actual costs incurred are calculated and audited independently from the TMO, though work does now proceed where possible during the actual financial year in question, in order to try and speed up that process and make it more accurate. Once agreed by the landlord, the costs relating to every building or estate or heating system that are of a rechargeable nature (under the terms and conditions of the lease agreement and the legislation) are calculated. Each leaseholder (and freeholder for some costs) share is then calculated and notified to the leaseholder. This is commonly known as the final accounts.

An adjustment reflecting the difference in the amounts you were invoiced for throughout that financial year (on estimate), compared to your share of the final accounts, will be applied to your service charge account. Details of how this has been calculated will also be sent to you, together with your rights to view the accounts in more detail, even to the extent of inspecting the invoices themselves.

They should be issued to you no later than 18 months after they have been incurred. You have the right to inspect the accounts for up to six months after the final accounts have been issued to you or until the end of the financial year in which they have been issued to you, whichever period is the longer. So, for instance, if the final accounts are issued in December, you have until the following June to request (in writing) to view further information. After that date, the landlord has no obligation to carry out that investigation for you.

The final account summaries that you currently receive more than meet the requirements of the legislation and the lease agreement. However, they may change over time if we can provide better or clearer information for you.