By the Social Housing Action Campaign

Leaseholders at Beck House, part of the ‘H4’ development in Elephant Park, Elephant and Castle, have won a major victory against property giant Lendlease, after a tribunal ruled that residents had been overcharged thousands of pounds in service chargesover several years. 

The decision follows a two-day First-tier Tribunalhearing in April 2025, where Beck House resident Pete Wilksrepresented the building’s leaseholders without legal representation. The tribunal’s 38-page judgment found that Lendlease had overcharged Beck House residents by over £2,500 per household, amounting to an estimated £260,000 across the H4 building, with total refunds expected to reach over £500,000once applied to two neighbouring developments (H5 and H11). 

Background

Beck House forms part of the H4 building — a mixed-use development consisting of shared ownership homes (managed by L&Q), affordable rent units, and build-to-rent apartmentsoperated under Lendlease’s Living by Lendlease brand. The shared ownership homes were marketed as Affordable Housing, with strict affordability criteria set by Southwark Councilto ensure that mortgage, rent, and service charges were “established and maintained” at 40% of household income. However, over just three years, Beck House’s monthly service charge soared by 149%, rising from £233 in 2021 to £580 in 2024. 

Lendlease — which both operated its own commercial build-to-rent business within the same building and controlled the apportionment of shared costs — was found to have placed a disproportionate share of costson Beck House residents and affordable rent tenants. This created a clear conflict of interest, allowing the developer to subsidise its profitable build-to-rent operation at the expense of affordable housing residents. 

Despite repeated requests from leaseholders, MPs, councillors, the BBC, The Guardian, and housing associations, Lendlease refused to disclose full apportionment details. Residents were unable to verify how shared costs were divided, and the tribunal found that the accounts breached lease requirementsby hiding essential financial information. 

Tribunal Findings 

The tribunal ruled decisively in favour of Beck House, identifying widespread overcharging and financial non-compliance by Lendlease, including: 

• Overcharges of over £2,500 per leaseholder, equating to roughly £260,000across H4. 
• 150% overchargefor Building Management costs and 100% overchargefor Security. 
• Charges for Leisure Facilities and Concierge servicesused exclusively by build-to-rent tenants — spanning 25 separate cost items. 
• £30,000wrongly billed to Beck House for personnel involved in completing Lendlease’s private apartments. 
• Additional overcharges for waste disposaland £3,000 in late electricity fees. 

In its written decision, the tribunal stated: “Absent any adequate explanation, we consider it more likely than not that the reduced liability on the BTR properties resulting from transferring service charge costs was the reason or main reason for transferring items of expenditure.” 

The tribunal went further, criticising the lack of transparency in Lendlease’s financial reporting and concluding that its accounts failed to comply with the lease. Lendlease has now been ordered to republish all accountswith full financial disclosure. 

Outcomes and Next Steps 

Following the ruling: 

• Lendlease will step downas managing agent and be replaced by Savills, bringing greater transparency and professional oversight. 
• Service charges have fallensignificantly — from £586 per monthat their peak to £335 per month. 
• The H4 Management Company’s Director has been replaced, and both the Building Managerand Accountantinvolved have left Lendlease. 
• Savills has introduced direct billingfor residents, ensuring future charges are clear, auditable, and fairly apportioned. 
• Lendlease is recruiting a project manager and accounting teamto recalculate and republish all accounts in line with the tribunal’s ruling. 

A Victory for Transparency and Accountability 

“This case highlights the imbalance of power between large developers and individual leaseholders,”said Pete Wilks, who represented Beck House residents.“We were charged thousands of pounds more than we should have been while being denied the information needed to challenge it. The tribunal has brought transparency, fairness, and accountability.” 

“The lack of transparency was a huge problem for us and is a common complaint from leaseholders across the UK,” Pete Wilks added. “There’s no other industry where a company can charge over £6,000 a year and refuse to show how that money was spent. What’s worse is that the only way to challenge it is through a long, complicated tribunal process that can end up costing more than the overcharge itself. It took an incredible amount of work to obtain this outcome, and overall, I am still worse off than if the overcharging had never happened.” 

The tribunal’s findings echoed these concerns, noting that Lendlease’s approach lacked proper justification and that residents had been unfairly burdened with costs. Its conclusion that, more likely than not, service charge transfers were the reason or main reasonfor reducing liabilities on the BTR properties underscores the seriousness of the issue. 

This is a significant decision for mixed-tenure developments across the UK where developers manage both private and affordable housing interests. 

SHAC Secretary and Cofounder Suzanne Muna said: “The Beck House residents have won a stunning vindication of their claims that they had been systematically and deliberately overcharged. Lendlease were repeatedly made aware of the inaccuracies and repeatedly failed to rectify them. Unlike other retail sectors, the way the law stands for service charging means that residents are forced to pay even when they know that they are being wrongly charged.”

“This practice is happening on an industrial scale across housing associations, private landlords, and managing agents. Yet very few tenants or residents have the capacity to do what Pete Wilks has done, to challenge such charges through all the stages of the court system, and to do so without legal representation. Meanwhile, landlords are able to draw on top legal advice and call on a barrister to represent them. The power imbalance is gaping. It cannot be left to individuals to fight these battles. To date however, we have seen nothing from government that suggests they intend to crack down on service charge abuse or improve access to justice.”

The residents of Beck House will now monitor the remediation ordered by the courts to ensure it is applied in full.

SHAC is a campaign group linking tenants, renters, shared owners, and leaseholders living in social and private housing. It campaigns to improve the conditions of homes and neighbourhoods, and to reduce the commercialisation of housing. More information on the End Service Charge Abuse campaign can be found here.