We have asked our managing agent to see the invoices behind our service charge and been refused. Do leaseholders have a right to inspect the paperwork?
Often yes, but through a defined statutory procedure rather than an open right of access. Section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 allows a leaseholder, or the secretary of a recognised tenants' association, to make a written request for a written summary of relevant costs for an accounting period. Section 22 then allows a further written request to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting that summary. Inspection itself is free; a reasonable charge may be made for copies or extracts. Genuine personal data can be redacted, but data protection is not a proper reason to refuse financial inspection outright.
Leaseholders do not have an unrestricted right to walk in and read every document at any time. What they have is a statutory sequence, and it works well when it is followed properly.
Under section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, a tenant, or the secretary of a recognised tenants' association, may make a written request to the landlord for a written summary of the relevant costs for the relevant accounting period. Where the service charges are payable by the tenants of more than four dwellings, the summary must be certified by a qualified accountant.
Under section 22, once that summary has been obtained, the tenant may make a further written request for facilities to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary, and to take copies or extracts from them.
The requests should be in writing and should identify the accounting period. Keeping a dated copy matters, because the statutory timescales run from the request.
A note on terminology. This page concerns section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (inspection of service charge documents). It is a different provision from the "section 22 notice" referred to elsewhere on this site, which is the preliminary notice under section 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 used when applying to the Tribunal to appoint a manager.
This distinction causes more arguments than any other part of the procedure.
There is no automatic right to have the complete file scanned and emailed free of charge. Many good agents will send a handful of invoices by email because it is quicker for everyone, and that is sensible practice, but it is a courtesy rather than something section 22 compels in that form. Ask for the inspection, then decide which specific documents you want copied.
A section 22 request is a written request. There is no prescribed statutory form to complete, so it is misleading to describe it as a formal statutory "notice" in the way a section 20 consultation notice or a section 22 LTA 1987 preliminary notice is. A dated letter or email that identifies the accounting period, refers to the summary already obtained, and asks for facilities to inspect the supporting documents is enough.
The Act requires the landlord to make reasonable facilities available for inspection. It does not specify a building.
In practice, an inspection is normally arranged at the agent's office during business hours by appointment, with the relevant files pulled together in advance. Many competent managing agents now operate remotely or from a serviced or home-based office, and there is no requirement for a leaseholder to be invited into anyone's private home. What matters is that a genuine, workable opportunity to inspect is offered: a neutral, businesslike location such as a meeting room, a serviced office, the block's own communal facility or the office of the agent's accountant will normally satisfy the requirement, provided the documents are actually there and enough time is allowed.
An offer that is not a reasonable facility - a date months away, a location hundreds of miles from the building with no alternative, or fifteen minutes with an incomplete file - is not compliance. Equally, a leaseholder insisting on a specific venue of their choosing is asking for more than the Act provides.
Section 22 allows the landlord to treat costs incurred in providing the facilities as part of its costs of management. That is not the same thing as an automatically recoverable service charge.
Changing managing agent does not extinguish the information rights. The obligation sits with the landlord, and the accounting periods in question do not stop being relevant because a different firm now manages the block.
In practice, though:
Our managing agent handover checklist sets out what a complete transfer should include, and there is further guidance on changing managing agent and on what to do where an outgoing agent refuses to hand over funds and records.
No, and it is unhelpful to present it that way. The right is tied to the statutory wording: the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary of relevant costs. That covers invoices, quotations, statements, insurance documentation and the financial records behind the figures.
It is not a general right to every historic email, every exchange between directors, or every document the managing agent has ever held about the building. Some correspondence will genuinely support an item of expenditure and should be produced. Other material may raise separate questions of relevance, third-party personal data under the UK GDPR, or legal professional privilege, and those need to be considered on their own terms rather than swept in under section 22.
A leaseholder in a 24-flat block queries a large increase in the maintenance line.
The dispute narrows from "we are not being told anything" to a specific question about six documents, which is where it should have started.
Some leases contain their own inspection or information provisions, and a recognised tenants' association has additional rights. Where a management agreement or a professional code applies, agents are generally expected to deal with reasonable requests for information constructively rather than defensively, even outside the statutory procedure.
Supporting documents occasionally contain personal data, for example a resident's name in a repair record or an employee's details on a payroll schedule. Redacting that material where genuinely necessary is proper. What is not proper is refusing an entire inspection by pointing at data protection in general terms. Invoices from contractors, quotations, insurance documents and bank statements relating to the service charge are financial records of the building, and blanket refusal is very hard to justify.
Leasehold information rights have been the subject of reform, and sections 55 to 58 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would replace parts of this regime. Those provisions remain prospective: they have not been commenced in England, so sections 21 and 22 of the 1985 Act continue to apply. Do not rely on an uncommenced provision, and do not assume the older sections have gone. Make the request under the sections currently in force and say so.
Most inspection disputes are avoidable. An agent who publishes the annual accounts with a clear expenditure breakdown, and who answers a specific question about a specific invoice, rarely receives a formal section 21 request at all. Where trust has broken down, the statutory route exists precisely so the question can be resolved without argument about goodwill. Our service charge management approach is to answer the underlying question first and treat the statutory procedure as the backstop.
Good invoice records are a management issue as much as a legal one, and are part of how we run management for RTM companies.
These are the timescales in force in England. The provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 that would replace this regime have not yet been commenced, so the sections 21 and 22 procedure remains the one to use.
| Stage | Deadline currently in force |
|---|---|
| Section 21 summary of relevant costs | The landlord must comply within one month of the written request, or within six months of the end of the relevant accounting period, whichever is the later. |
| Section 22 request to inspect | The written request must be made within six months of obtaining the section 21 summary. |
| Inspection facilities made available | Facilities must be made available within one month of the section 22 request. |
| Period the documents stay available | The facilities must remain available for a period of two months. |
Usually yes, through the statutory sequence. A written request under section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 produces a written summary of relevant costs for the accounting period. A further written request under section 22 then entitles the leaseholder to facilities to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting that summary, which is where the invoices sit. The lease may give wider rights, and many agents will answer a specific invoice query without any formal request at all.
Yes. Section 22 requires the landlord to make facilities available for inspecting the supporting documents, and no charge may be made for the inspection itself. Charges arise only in relation to copies or extracts.
No. Section 22 is a right to inspect the documents and to take copies or extracts, not a right to have the entire file scanned and emailed free of charge. Sending a few invoices by email is often the quickest way to resolve a query and many agents do it as a matter of good practice, but it is not what the section compels.
Yes. Where the Act permits copies or extracts to be provided, a reasonable charge may be made for them. The charge should be modest and itemised, and it should reflect the real cost of copying rather than operate as a deterrent.
The information rights are not extinguished by a change of agent, because the obligation rests with the landlord rather than the firm managing at the time. In practice the current agent can only produce what it actually received. It should say clearly what it holds and for which periods, and missing historic records should be pursued from the outgoing agent as part of the handover, normally by or on behalf of the client company.
No. The right relates to the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary of relevant costs. It is not a general right to every historic email, every exchange between directors or every document the agent has ever held. Some correspondence genuinely supports an item of expenditure and should be produced; other material may raise separate issues of relevance, third-party personal data under the UK GDPR, or legal professional privilege.
The statutory requirement is to provide reasonable facilities, not to open a particular building. A managing agent working remotely or from home cannot be required to invite a leaseholder into a private home. A neutral, businesslike venue such as a meeting room, a serviced office, a communal facility at the block or the office of the agent's accountant will normally be acceptable, provided the documents are there and enough time is allowed.
Facilities must be made available within one month of the written section 22 request, and must remain available for two months. The earlier section 21 summary must be provided within one month of that request or within six months of the end of the relevant accounting period, whichever is later.
The statutory route is a backstop. Most inspection requests arise because ordinary reporting was unclear, and better accounts prevent them.
Making the request verbally
The statutory timescales run from a written request, so a phone call leaves the leaseholder with nothing to enforce.
Refusing everything on data protection grounds
A blanket refusal is difficult to defend and usually escalates a resolvable question into a formal complaint.
Asking to see "everything"
Unfocused requests are slow to satisfy and obscure the real question. Identify the period and the costs in issue.
Assuming reform provisions are already in force
Some changes require commencement regulations. Relying on an uncommenced provision weakens an otherwise good request.
Most questions on this topic are management questions rather than legal ones, and the two are worth separating. A managing agent can tell you how something works day to day and what it will cost. A solicitor tells you what your rights are and how a Tribunal is likely to view them.
East Valley Properties provides management expertise, not legal advice. Where a matter turns on the wording of your lease or on formal proceedings, we will say so and work alongside your solicitor.
The official material behind this guide. We summarise it in plain English rather than reproducing it.
Right to a written summary of relevant costs, and the time limits for providing it.
Right to inspect the accounts, receipts and supporting documents behind the summary, free of charge, and to take copies for a reasonable charge.
Reasonableness of service charge costs, relevant to whether the cost of providing facilities is recoverable.
Current government-funded guidance on the summary and inspection procedure.
Replacement information provisions. Enacted but shown as prospective; not commenced in England as at September 2026.
Professional expectations for transparency and responding to information requests.
Clear budgets, service charge accounts in the client company's name where possible and year-end accounts leaseholders can actually follow. We can review your current arrangement at no cost.
Answered by Romain Maillard - Director, East Valley Properties
Affiliate member of The Property Institute
Romain manages residential blocks and estates for RTM companies, residents' management companies, share of freehold developments and freeholders across East London and Essex.
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Based on the legislation and official guidance cited on this page.
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This answer has been anonymised. Personal details, addresses and company names have been removed. Guidance is general and does not replace advice from a solicitor or surveyor on your specific block. East Valley Properties is a managing agent, not a firm of solicitors or legal advisers.
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