A COUPLE say they’ve become trapped in their home after the service charge has soared to £7,500 – making it unsellable.
Sam and Evangeline Thorn, both 33, want to move to a bigger house so they can grow their family, but the crippling costs have forced them to put their future plans on hold.
The Thorns purchased a two-bedroom leasehold flat – their first property – in Redhill, Surrey, for £245,000 in 2018.
Back then, service charges were priced at £2,800 – but the yearly cost has since increased to £7,500.
The couple, who had a daughter two years ago, want to sell up and move in to a bigger home with enough room for a second child.
But they say nobody wants to buy their flat.
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Despite having the property valued at £300,000 last year, no buyers have come forward, even after the couple dropped the asking price to just £220,000 – below what they paid for it.
Sam, an account manager, said: “We’ve had maybe 10 or so viewings with estate agents.
“Every single person that liked it, when they were then made aware of the service charge cost, the estate agents told us that people didn’t want to go for another viewing.
“They just weren’t interested. It’s left us in a position where we’ve met with our mortgage advisor and they’ve said we’re financially in a position where we can get a bigger place.
“We’re ready in our lives to have more children, but we just need a bigger place.
“We haven’t got enough room to have more children, so literally our lives are on pause at the moment.
“It’s not just the financial strain of having to come up with £7,500 a year to pay these costs, but you’re also not able to move on to your life.
“We’re just stuck where we are at the moment.”
Sam and Evangeline aren’t alone – almost five million homeowners pay service fees, which have risen 11% in 2025.
As a result, thousands of leasehold owners are becoming trapped and forced to pay high service charges that they have no control or say over.
A leasehold property is where you can buy the right to live in it for a set period of time, but you don’t own the land it’s on.
Service charges can be implemented for repairs and maintenance on the property, such as gardening, cleaning, structural repairs, and services for communal areas.
Payments are usually due twice a year, and the exact amount can vary depending on the cost that the landlord incurs.
To cover the increasing service charges, Sam says he and Evangeline, an events co-ordinator, have had to cut back on luxuries, such as holidays.
He said: “It’s not even worth budgeting any more. You budget for a set amount, and then the service charge comes and it’s a lot more than you thought it was going to be.”
Their flat, located in the 18-year-old Park25 development just a few miles from the M25, in leafy Redhill, Surrey, is managed by FirstPort.
The development is heated by a communal heat network – the costs of which are included in the service charge.
The network uses a mixture of gas boilers and biomass boilers to heat hundreds of homes.
In 2024, FirstPort received a share of £3.5million in Government funding to increase the network’s efficiency.
And, according to the company, 51% of the service charge is spent on energy costs.
But Sam said: “If you take that away, we’re still left with a bill of just under £4,000 a year for things like cutting the grass and lift maintenance.
“We tried to sell the property when service charges were about that much and still couldn’t sell it.
“Even if the heating were to be replaced, we’ve still got the issue that we’re just having our eyes pulled out by this company charging whatever they like.
“We received a notification last week to say they went over budget last year, and we’ll get a bill soon for what the excess costs were.
“It’s about £80,000 over budget, they’ve put under a section titled ‘general maintenance’.
“They budgeted £16,000 and it cost over £90,000. It’s just figures they seem to pluck from thin air.
“They’re supposed to be looking after people’s properties, but what they’re actually doing is ruining peoples’ lives.”
How to fight rip-off service charges if you’re a leaseholder
MILLIONS of homeowners have been stung with extortionate leasehold service charges. If this affects you and your home, there are things you can do to challenge the charges.
- Try resolving it directly first by speaking to your management company.
- If that fails, you may be able to take over managing charges yourself. The Right to Manage is a legal process where leasehold residents effectively take over managing their building together. It’s only available for leaseholders of flats, not houses.
- For private leasehold residents, you can then complain to a First Tier Tribunal about leasehold charges if you can’t use Right to Manage or need to take further action. If you live in social housing, you can try escalating your case via the Housing Ombudsman instead.
For more on how to fight service charges, click here.
A FirstPort spokesperson said: “The heat network at Park 25 is becoming increasingly inefficient due to the failure of key components as the system ages.
“These issues, combined with rising biomass fuel costs for the boilers, have been the main factors behind the recent increase in service charges.
“Unfortunately, these cost pressures are outside of our control.
“We remain committed to finding solutions, working with the government to provide the best outcome for our customers.
“This includes exploring innovative options such as recycling waste heat from a neighbouring data centre to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
“We have also secured an initial Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES) grant to investigate how the heat network can improve for the benefit of residents.
“A further application has been made to secure additional funding to support improvements.
“We have met with residents and the local MP Rebecca Paul on several occasions to explain how service charges are calculated, what they include, and the significant impact of the heat network on total costs.
“We’ve also taken steps to improve transparency for homeowners around costs introducing clearer invoices, detailed cost breakdowns, and more opportunities for residents to ask questions and provide feedback.”
Government changes to leasehold service charges
Whilst the government has promised to tackle extortionate service charges and, as a result, passed a new law, changes are said to be years away.
The Leasehold and Freedom Reform Act 2024 was passed in a High Court ruling in October 2025 after a £5million judicial review challenge from freeholders failed.
The next step is secondary legislation after the Strengthening Leaseholder Protections consultation, which closed in September 2025.
The government has said that the full implementation will take several years, but leaseholders will benefit from cheaper lease extensions, fairer service charges and stronger rights.
The Sun has contacted the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for comment.
