It pays to ask a few questions before paying higher service charges

Aflat-dwelling friend is suffering her annual bout of "lease blues". The trigger, as usual, is a rising service charge demand covering property repairs, maintenance, insurance and management expenses. Must she cough up without demur? Not necessarily. Must she tread carefully? Yes. Leases are a minefield.

Anyone paying variable service charges - whether renting a flat or owning a leasehold - has rights and entitlements under the 1987 and 1985 Landlord and Tenant Acts. The most basic is the right to know a landlord's name and address in order to contact him. The onus is on a landlord to provide this information, otherwise any property service charge demand is deemed invalid and not recoverable. Your District Land Registry office can also provide a name from the proprietorship register.

A tenant is entitled to ask the landlord how service charges are made up, to inspect accounts and receipts and take copies without being charged. Landlords must consult residents over any major works and if a tenant is faced with a service charge demand of more than pounds 1,000 for a single item - such as roof work - then a landlord must obtain two estimates for consultation. The amounts can be argued and other firms suggested which may tender more competitively. Building costs have gone down in recent years and quotations should reflect this. If the tenant still thinks the estimates provided are too high, he or she is entitled to come up with an estimate comparing like for like within a month of receiving the landlord's estimates.

Management charges can't come "out of the blue" and must be specifically defined in the lease. It may be detailed in a clause as a percentage of an overall service charge incorporating such things as surveyors' fees or solicitors' charges. Go through the lease with your solicitor or Citizen's Advice Bureau to establish how management and service charges are drawn up.

Solicitors Davies & Partners, specialists in property, landlord and tenant matters, advise never withholding service charges if you intend challenging demands in the county court. Non-payment could spur a landlord into legal proceedings for forfeiture of lease.

Your service charges may have gone up but the condition of your building may have gone down because your landlord has failed to carry out the refurbishments stipulated within your lease. If this is the case, the lessor is in breach of contract. You are entitled to withhold payment until that responsibility has been fulfilled. Once the work has been done, ask for receipts as proof of expenditure.

A housing booklet, No 27 `The Management of flats, deals with rights and duties of landlords and tenants', is available from the Department of Environment. For further information, contact the Law Society (0171- 242 1222) and the Federation of Private Residents Associations (0171-482 1581).