Service Charges ‐ Law and Practice

Citation

Cooling, P. (1998), "Service Charges ‐ Law and Practice", Property Management, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 103-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1998.16.2.103.1

The aim of this book is to collect together the law and practice relating to service charges across the whole field of residential and commercial lettings. The book successfully achieves that aim and will be a useful, practical guide to professionals working in this field.

This is the second edition of the publication, which has given the authors an opportunity to include the new legislation introduced by the Housing Act 1996 and the Leasehold Reform (Housing and Urban Development) Act 1993.

Considering the book deals with a comparatively small area of the law relating to leases, it seems initially to be unnecessarily lengthy. It is worth noting that the appendices comprise nearly 100 pages of the 250 page text and reproduce extracts from the legislation as well as specimen service charge clauses. The addition of these appendices will enhance the book’s use to the practitioner.

The book is written in an easily digestible form and could be readily understood by those with little knowledge of this area of the law.

The book includes a chapter on “Environmental Matters”, although the relevance of this to service charges is somewhat in doubt. The skimpy description of this emerging area of the law adds nothing to the content of the book and produces confusion by raising issues which are outside its scope.

The book is clearly not intended to be read from cover to cover, but rather to be dipped into for guidance when necessary. It would have been helpful if the “Definitions Sections”, which are spread throughout the book, such as in paragraph 1.1.5, were collected together at the beginning to assist in its comprehension.

In short, this book should provide guidance to the practitioner in this field and successfully draws together the legislation relating to service charges.