Service Charge Wahala: When You Can Legally Refuse to Pay in Your Estate or Apartment

Every year, the service charge goes up. Nobody shows you the accounts. The "24-hour security" sleeps by 11pm, the generator runs three hours a day, and the "estate maintenance" you're paying for is a pothole that has been there since you moved in. Then a notice appears on your gate threatening disconnection if you don't pay the new figure by Friday.

So here is the question every estate dweller and apartment tenant in Lagos and Abuja eventually asks: do I actually have to pay this?

The honest answer is nuanced — but it tilts much more in your favour than most residents realise.

What a service charge legally is

A service charge is money you pay, on top of rent (or as a homeowner in an estate), for the upkeep of shared facilities and services: security, common-area cleaning, waste disposal, shared generator/diesel, water pumps, landscaping, lift maintenance, and the like.

The crucial legal principle is this: a service charge is payment for services actually rendered. It is not a tax, not a profit centre for the landlord or estate manager, and not an open-ended figure they can set at will. It is a contribution towards defined, real costs.

The Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011 recognises service charges and addresses them directly. It contemplates that service charge is tied to the actual services provided, and the law's broader posture is that tenants should not be made to pay arbitrary or unaccountable sums.

The four questions that decide whether you can refuse

1. Is the service charge in your agreement?

Look at your tenancy agreement or your estate's deed/resident agreement. A service charge you never agreed to — one introduced after the fact, or never written down — stands on weak ground. If you are being charged for something that appears nowhere in any document you signed, that is your first and strongest point of challenge.

2. Are the services actually being provided?

This is the heart of it. If you are paying for security that doesn't exist, a generator that doesn't run, cleaning that doesn't happen, and maintenance that is never done, you are paying for services not rendered. A service charge is consideration for services; where the services fail, the basis for the charge is undermined. You are entitled to demand that the services you pay for are actually delivered.

3. Have you been shown how the money is spent?

You have a legitimate expectation of accountability. A landlord or estate manager collecting service charge from many residents is handling pooled funds and should be able to account for them — what was collected, what was spent, and on what. A flat refusal to provide any breakdown, while demanding ever-higher payments, is a serious red flag and a strong basis to demand transparency before paying more.

4. Is the increase justified?

Diesel prices rise, and genuine costs do go up. But an increase should reflect real, demonstrable cost changes — not a round-number jump with no explanation. You are entitled to ask what specifically drove the increase.

When you should pay (and pay promptly)

To be fair and accurate: if the service charge is in your agreement, the services are genuinely being provided, and the figure is reasonable and accounted for, then you owe it — and withholding it weakens your position and can itself put you in breach. The goal here is not to dodge legitimate charges. Shared facilities cost real money, and free-riding residents make estates worse for everyone.

The right to challenge applies to charges that are arbitrary, unaccounted-for, or for services not rendered — not to legitimate, transparent, agreed charges.

How to challenge a service charge the right way

Don't just stop paying silently — that hands the manager an easy "tenant in arrears" narrative. Instead:

1. Put your concerns in writing. Write to the landlord or estate manager requesting (a) a copy of the provision in your agreement authorising the charge, (b) a breakdown of how the current and previous service charges were spent, and (c) an explanation for any increase. Keep it factual and professional.

2. Document the service failures. Photograph the broken security gate, log the days the generator didn't run, note the uncollected waste. Build a record.

3. Propose to pay for what is genuinely provided. A reasonable position — "I will pay the portion attributable to services actually rendered, and I dispute the rest pending an account" — is far stronger than blanket refusal.

4. Escalate formally if ignored. If the manager stonewalls and threatens disconnection or other reprisals, a formal demand letter raises the stakes and creates the paper trail you'll need if it goes further. Note that, just as with rent, an estate manager generally cannot lawfully use self-help measures (like cutting your power) to force payment of a disputed charge — that may itself be unlawful.

A warning about disconnection threats

Estate managers love to threaten to "disconnect" residents who question service charges — cut the power, deny gate access, blacklist you. Be aware that using self-help to coerce payment of a disputed sum can expose the manager to liability, much as a landlord locking out a tenant does. You do not have to be bullied into paying an unaccountable charge under threat. Demand the account first.

The document that prevents most of this

Nearly every service-charge dispute grows in the gap left by a vague or missing agreement. A well-drafted tenancy agreement (or, for estates, a clear resident/service agreement) should specify:

• Exactly what the service charge covers.

• How it is calculated.

• How and when it can be reviewed or increased.

• The resident's right to an annual account of how funds were spent.

With those terms written down, there is far less for either side to argue about — and you have a clear contractual hook if the services aren't delivered.

How LegalDoc helps

If you are being charged an arbitrary or unaccounted-for service charge and need to challenge it formally, LegalDoc's Demand Letter template lets you produce a structured, professional letter demanding an account and the delivery of services you've paid for — in minutes, ready to send. And if you are entering a new tenancy, LegalDoc's Tenancy Agreement lets you nail down exactly what the service charge covers and your right to transparency, so the wahala never starts.

You are allowed to ask where your money is going. In fact, asking — in writing, and firmly — is exactly how you make it stop disappearing.