Curo scales back a 300%-plus service charge rise after shared owners go to tribunal

The two sides tell the ending differently. The BBC reported that the residents won their legal battle after taking Curo to tribunal ^[2]. Alan Rice of Weston Housing Action said: "Quite a few people told us that we wouldn't win, but we were persistent and we got the result we wanted." ^[10] Curo said it had "already agreed these reductions before the tribunal took place" ^[23]. The report does not describe a tribunal decision on the charge itself. On this evidence, the case shows a provider cutting a contested bill by about two thirds once leaseholders pressed it ^[20].

The cut still leaves the charge above where it started. It was about £70 a month before the rise ^[1], so a level just over £100 is roughly 43% higher ^[17]. The gap between the peak and the new level is roughly £200 a month per flat, or about £2,400 a year ^[18]. Across nine flats, around £21,600 a year less will come in than the higher charge would have raised ^[19]. These figures are approximate, because the peak is reported as "more than" £300 and the new level as "just over" £100 ^{[1] [2]}.

Curo has set out the trade-off in its own words. The provider said: "Keeping people safe is our priority, and we need to balance ensuring the right fire safety measures are in place with trying to minimize the financial impact, which we know has been difficult." ^[5] Sinking funds, it said, exist to "help flat owners spread the cost across several years" ^[11]. A single step that more than quadrupled the monthly charge ^[22] sits awkwardly with that description. Curo also said: "What we're trying to avoid is large bills that leaseholders aren't expecting." ^[6]

The households felt the rise first. One resident said they took on an extra job when the charge went up, and others said they were anxious about affording it ^[8]. Rice said: "Although they were sold to them as affordable homes, suddenly they weren't affordable any more." ^[9]

A finance director at another provider could reasonably say that one nine-flat block in Somerset ^[7] is a thin basis for planning. The Bath case in the same report answers part of that ^[14]. Spread over twelve months, Samantha Young's new charge comes to about £500 a month, against roughly £82 before ^[21]. That is above the Coombe Lodge peak of a little over £300 ^[1]. Curo told the BBC it was "having ongoing conversations with Ms Young about how we can work together to resolve this, and we visited her at home this week to agree a way forward" ^[15].

Challenge is the residents' main check, because there is no limit on how much a service charge can rise ^[12]. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act, passed in 2024, should eventually force managing agents to provide a full breakdown of costs ^[13]. It also promises leaseholders the right to look back at six years of service charge information, but it is not yet fully implemented ^[13]. The report does not say when those provisions take effect. In my view, the timing matters most for a provider setting reserve contributions this quarter: rises set now could fall inside the six-year window leaseholders are promised, depending on when it starts ^[13].