A Labour supporters’ website has attacked landlords over service charges.
An article on the Labourhub website looks at 238 cases of service charges challenged at the First Tier Property Tribunal (FTT).
These involve both social and private landlords – and its housing associations that come in for the fiercest criticism.
The article claims more than 63% of landlords were found to be overcharging for services.
This figure rises to more than 66% for housing association landlords.
But the article then speculates that because the FTT can order refunds only to the tenants and residents who are party to the judgement, “landlords are generally getting away with largescale financial exploitation.”
It even says landlords are “generating unearned income from a captive audience.”
It claims that foreach case heard, “many, many more” are settled out of court, with the landlord admitting the overcharging only after a Tribunal claim has been lodged.
The article concludes from this: “This suggests that landlords wait to see how far a tenant or resident will go before they address concerns.”
Tenants had legal or other representation in 20% of cases, compared to landlords or agents who were represented in over 60% of cases.
It cites unspecified examples where landlords “routinely threaten” claimants with compensation and legal costs if the FTT funding the landlords’ favour.
The data was collected the Social Housng Action Campaign (SHAC) which, despite its title, says it also acts for those in private rental accommodation.
A SHAC spokesperson is quoted in the Labourhub article as saying: “Service charge abuse is both financially and psychologically devastating for those affected.
“The evidence we have collected is stark, and this report is critically important in providing hard evidence of the widespread financial hyper-exploitation of tenants and residents by landlords.”
You can see the article in full here. https://labourhub.org.uk/2026/02/14/landlord-overcharging-found-in-nearly-two-thirds-of-tribunal-cases/
SHAC has been created out of the housing workers branch of Unite the Union – and says it “links tenants, renters, shared owners, and leaseholders living in homes owned by housing association, council, and private landlords.”
It is funded through voluntary donations and trade union subscriptions as it is “without the bottomless resources our landlords enjoy” according to its website.
The campaign says: “We maintain strong ties with trade unions, aiming to bring together tenants, residents and workers on issues of common cause.
“Together we campaign to improve people’s housing conditions and to reduce the commercialisation of public housing.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today