What can a business occupier do to check whether their service charge percentage is correct? There are different methods that landlords use to split service costs between the various occupiers whether in a building, shopping centre or on an estate but the most common by far is the floor area basis. This is where the percentage payable (by a unit or occupier) is calculated by dividing the floor area of a particular unit by the sum of the floor areas of all the lettable units to arrive at a percen...

  McNeil Commercial has built up a bit of a reputation for resolving commercial property service charge disputes. How have we done this? Well a lot of our work comes via solicitors or accountants and they contact us because they need someone who is a niche specialist to analyse in detail their clients concerns over service charge sums demanded.

The most frequent question I am asked by new clients when I first take on a service charge instruction is “should I pay this invoice or withhold payment of it?” Business tenants are often faced with this dilemma for the first time when the service charge on their commercial property suddenly rises. To pay or not to pay that is the question. Withholding payment of service charge is not to be taken lightly.

You don't have to turn a blind eye to service charges in commercial property.  Have you ever wondered whether your business is paying too much service charge on your commercial property? If you are reading this article then perhaps you have thought about it but did not know what to do. If you are a business owner or the financial director it is likely to be your responsibility to sign off the service charge payment to the landlord every three months.

Because today is the start of a new year I thought that I should at least set out some resolutions to try and stick to. Why? Well the first is for my benefit.

We have all heard about the bloodshed on the high street on the national news. Is the beautiful Georgian city of Bath immune to these troubled times? Bath after all is one of the UK’s top tourist destinations.

Working as a Managing Agent responsible for the management of a large number of commercial properties means that among other things you have to answer questions and provide information about these properties. Providing endless copies of statements, invoices or any other document for that matter is not only tedious and boring but it is time consuming and costly for the management company. In some cases information has been provided before to the individual that has requested it and they have eith...