1. Tribunal fees and your own costs
The headline numbers are small. A typical application fee is £100 and a typical hearing fee is around £200, though fees can be higher for certain application types and on a sliding scale. Fee remission is available on low income or qualifying benefits using form EX160 — we always recommend leaseholders test for remission before paying.
Each party normally pays their own legal and consultancy costs, win or lose. This is the 'no-costs' default. The exceptions described below are powerful, but they are exceptions.
2. The biggest hidden risk: landlord cost recovery via the lease
The single most expensive risk for leaseholders is the landlord's ability to add its legal and tribunal costs back to your account through one of two routes:
- The service charge. If the lease contains a sweeping costs recovery clause (and many do), the landlord can add its tribunal legal costs to the next year's service charge and recover from every leaseholder.
- An administration charge against you personally. Some leases let the landlord recover costs of dealing with a leaseholder's 'default' as a variable administration charge under Schedule 11 of the 2002 Act.
The two statutory shields are:
- Section 20C, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985: an order that landlord legal costs may not be added to the service charge of specified leaseholders. Always apply for this in your statement of case and again at the hearing.
- Schedule 11 paragraph 5A, 2002 Act: an order extinguishing administration charge legal costs. Apply for this whenever there is any prospect of the landlord adding costs to your account personally.
These are not granted automatically. The tribunal weighs reasonableness, conduct of the parties and the lease wording. The leading case — Tenants of Langford Court v Doren — sets out that the tribunal will look at all the circumstances.
3. Rule 13 — unreasonable conduct costs
Under Rule 13 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013, the tribunal can order costs against a party who has acted unreasonably in bringing, defending or conducting proceedings. The cap is £5,000 in summary assessment by the FTT (more on detailed assessment by the Upper Tribunal).
These orders are exceptional, but they happen — most often where a party:
- Ignores tribunal directions or breaches an unless order.
- Runs a hopeless point with no reasonable prospect of success.
- Behaves obstructively in the run-up to a hearing.
- Refuses to engage with reasonable settlement proposals in writing.
The protective answer is the same on either side: comply with directions on time, narrow the issues where you can, and put offers in writing.
4. Enfranchisement cost structure (different from everything else)
Enfranchisement and statutory lease extension have their own cost regime. Leaseholders pay:
- Their own costs — solicitor, valuer, case handler.
- The landlord's reasonable statutory costs of valuation and conveyancing under s.33 of the 1993 Act.
- The premium itself as determined or agreed.
Landlord costs can be challenged on Form Leasehold 10 if they look unreasonable in scope, in time or in rate. Recoveries of 30–60% on contested schedules are routine where the challenge is well prepared.
Importantly, the landlord cannot recover the costs of arguing about the premiumbefore the tribunal — only the statutory categories. Many landlord cost schedules try to smuggle these costs in under generic descriptions.
5. RTM cost recovery — a particular landlord shield
On a Right to Manage claim, s.88 of the 2002 Act makes the RTM company liable for the landlord's reasonable costs of dealing with the claim. If the claim is withdrawn or fails, the RTM company alone (not its members) is liable. This is one reason RTM company directors take such care over notice formalities — a defective claim can mean paying for the landlord's effort to defeat it.
6. Realistic prep-cost bands (consultancy + lay rep)
- Case Map / viability review: from £450 — single-flat service charge or admin charge query.
- Service charge dispute, full prep + hearing: £3,500–£12,000 depending on number of years, schedule complexity and expert needs.
- Section 20 dispensation defence (group of leaseholders): £6,000–£18,000.
- Enfranchisement / lease extension support: £2,500–£20,000 depending on whether terms or premium are in dispute and the number of participants.
- Leasehold 10 landlord cost challenge: £1,800–£6,500.
- RTM defence / appointment of manager: £4,000–£14,000.
These are indicative bands, not quotes. We scope and quote each matter individually after a free intake call.
7. The real risk to manage
The tribunal's fee is small. The real risk is not winning, it's winning badly: a result that is technically in your favour but where the landlord recovers all its costs through the next service charge demand, leaving the building no better off. Good preparation is half evidence and half costs strategy. Treat them as one.