Service charge audit for office tenants

What the audit is

We check whether the annual reconciliation of building costs matches your lease and market levels. Not only whether the arithmetic adds up, but whether you should be paying for those items at all.

Also called: service charge, operating costs, common area costs
What we check: cost catalogue, apportionment, invoice allocation, price levels
Time you have: usually three years to challenge a reconciliation

Written by Filip Sarzyński, Partner at Brookfield Partners · Updated: September 2026

What is at stake

The second largest cost of an office, and the only one whose size you do not know on signing

Service charges are paid in monthly advances for twelve months before anyone checks what the building actually cost. The advance is not a price: after the year ends the landlord compares it with the costs it attributed to the building and settles the difference with a surcharge or a refund.

PLN 29.80median quoted service charge per m² per month in Warsaw

PLN 357,600what a 1,000 m² tenant pays per year, on top of rent and independently of it

28%the share of service charges in the annual cost of an office

3 yearshow long you usually have to challenge a reconciliation

Source: OfficeList Pulse, Warsaw, as at 12 September 2026. Rent converted at the NBP rate of PLN 4.3228 per euro.

A landlord should not profit from service charges. But it does not pay them out of its own pocket either, it pays them with tenants' money. Which is why there is no incentive to optimise those costs.

Why

An audit is not only about the refund

A refund tends to be the most visible outcome, but rarely the most important one. An audit answers what you are paying for over the whole lease term, not just in a single year.

You pay the advance for twelve months before anyone checks what the building really cost. A reconciliation nobody challenged is then used to calculate the next advance.

Where your money is

The error returns in the next advance

The advance for the following year is calculated from a reconciliation nobody checked. An uncorrected mistake stays with you for another twelve months.

Someone else's costs on your invoice

Discounts granted to other tenants and the cost of vacant space can end up in your share. Without the apportionment key you cannot see it.

Not every cost is operating cost

Refurbishments, structural repairs, valuations for the bank, the owner company's accounting. They reach reconciliations although they are not building upkeep.

What you get beyond a refund

Errors run both ways

An audit also shows items settled against the landlord's interest. In a conversation that carries more weight than a list of accusations.

A view wider than one year

A reconciliation reveals multi-year service contracts. Neglected servicing comes back years later as the cost of a breakdown.

A point of reference

Deviation from the market standard is visible immediately. With several locations, start by comparing your own buildings.

Scope

What we check in an audit

Checking the arithmetic of the invoices alone misses the point. The amount can add up to the last złoty and still be built from items that should never have been charged to you. We run the audit in four layers.

The lease: what may go into the costs

We start with the wording, because it decides everything that happens later. We check whether the cost catalogue is closed or opened by the phrase „in particular”, which hands the decision to the landlord. Whether there are definitions separating repair from improvement. Whether you have the right to audit and to see documents, a cap on management fees and a cap on the annual increase of controllable costs.

Apportionment: how much of those costs is yours

We verify the percentage share against the lease and against the real area of the building. We check the denominator, because a share calculated on let area rather than total area shifts the cost of vacant space onto current tenants. In mixed-use buildings we look at whether the office part subsidises retail, hotel or parking.

Cost items: what actually entered the reconciliation

We go through the items and the allocation of invoices between the building, the common parts and individual tenants. We look for capital expenditure booked as running costs, owner company costs, mark-ups on utilities resold to tenants, related suppliers and the cost of vacant space. We also check building income, for example from parking, because it should reduce the reconciliation.

Benchmark: how you compare with the market

We compare the cost level and the structure of items with OfficeList Pulse data and with buildings of a similar standard and age. An older building can legitimately be more expensive to run; we look for items that stand out without a reason.

From practice

What the reconciliation table does not show

It is rarely bad faith. More often it is that nobody checks: the person preparing the reconciliation does not know your lease, people on the property manager's side change, and the absence of an audit in previous years cements whatever scheme was adopted. The scale can be striking: in an unofficial record kept over a decade ago by an audit team Maciej Banaszak worked in, more than 90% of the irregularities found worked in the landlord's favour.

A conversation with Maciej Banaszak about mistakes in office management

From the conversation „10 office management mistakes that cost millions” (in Polish). Full episode with a summary and transcript

An exchange rate in the third decimal place

On a single invoice the difference is pennies. Nobody checks the rate, because it looks like a technical detail.

„We had cases where one of the decimals in the rate favoured the landlord. At first glance it made no real difference to the amount. But multiply it by twelve months and by every tenant in the building, with nobody noticing, and the landlord can end up with a great deal more money.”
Maciej Banaszak (translated from Polish)

An energy-hungry unit wired to the shared meter

A retail unit on the ground floor was consuming electricity and the bill was split between all the tenants in the building. The reconciliation itself shows nothing of the sort.

„It was not obvious at all, but in an audit, compared with other buildings or with buildings in the same portfolio, it shows up immediately.”
Maciej Banaszak (translated from Polish)

Board members' flight tickets in the service charge

A case from over a decade ago at one of the larger landlords on the Polish market. A large company and a large item, hard to put down to mere oversight. It only came out because the tenant asked for the source documents.

Why this goes through at all

Some of those errors could be put down to manual work and human mistakes. Today reconciliations are calculated by systems, which removes neither the errors nor the asymmetry: the landlord holds all the documents and all the invoices, the tenant receives a single amount on an invoice.

„It is worth challenging an item even without being certain that something went wrong. The question is always worth asking, and the lease usually entitles you to the documents. It may turn out everything is in order. But showing the landlord that you are watching closely does matter.”
Maciej Banaszak (translated from Polish)

Team

Who runs the audit

Maciej Banaszak

Opulo Advisory

He knows reconciliation audits from both sides of the table: first from real estate advisory, later as the tenant receiving them for a global corporation's portfolio.

5 years: Amazon, Global Real Estate & Facilities: central operations for the EMEA portfolio, over 100 offices in more than 30 countries
13 years: JLL, among other roles global lease administration lead for a client with over 4,000 properties in more than 20 countries
Start: Business Risk Services at Ernst & Young
Today: advises corporate real estate organisations at Opulo Advisory and teaches problem solving and decision making on the Executive MBA at the Warsaw University of Technology Business School

„Where a lease has not been audited for a few years and all we did were general cost checks without going into detail, the savings from an audit comfortably cover its cost as a rule. There is no guarantee, of course, but in the long run an audit simply pays for itself.”
Maciej Banaszak in conversation with Filip Sarzyński

At Brookfield Partners the audit is part of advising a tenant, not a service sold to both sides of the market. So there is no situation in which we challenge the reconciliation of a building we are letting ourselves. How our advisory model works

Process

How we work together

STEP 01

Conversation and initial review

We look at the reconciliation and the lease provisions. After this step you know whether there is anything to look for. Free of charge.

STEP 02

Scope and documents

We agree which years the audit covers and request the source documents from the landlord.

STEP 03

Analysis

The four layers described above. Usually four to eight weeks from the moment documents are made available.

STEP 04

Report

A list of items to challenge with their contractual basis and the amount in dispute.

STEP 05

Conversation with the landlord

We negotiate the refund and carry the findings into an addendum, so the same error does not return every year.

Deadlines

How much time you have

Usually three years

That is how long you have to challenge a reconciliation and recover an overpayment. A 2023 reconciliation can be challenged until the end of 2026. After that the money stays with the landlord.

A right, not a request

Without an audit clause and access to documents you are left with a request. The landlord may refuse, and you are left with litigation.

„In particular”

An open cost catalogue means the landlord decides what counts as a service charge cost. A court will settle it one day, but years later and at your expense.

The deadlines above are indicative, as the details depend on the wording of the particular lease. This is information, not legal advice.

Before you sign the next lease

An audit is a remedial tool

What you pay over the next five years is decided earlier, when the cost provisions are negotiated. Three places to start.

ServiceLease renegotiationThe right to audit and a cap on management fees are provisions you win at renegotiation. Market dataOfficeList PulseVacancy, asking rents and service charges across the largest Polish markets. ModelTenant-only advisoryWhy we never act for building owners, and what that changes for you.

Filip Sarzyński, Partner at Brookfield Partners — **Filip Sarzyński**Partner, Brookfield Partners

I will review your reconciliation

Tell me which building you are in and what you received from the landlord. I reply within 24 working hours and say plainly whether there is anything worth fighting for. You send the documents in reply to my e-mail, and we review them in confidence.

FAQ

Service charge audit - frequently asked questions

What is a service charge audit?

It is a review of the annual building cost reconciliation against your lease and against market levels. The audit checks four things: whether a given item may be a service charge cost at all, whether the apportionment matches the lease, whether invoices were allocated to the right category, and whether the cost level deviates from comparable buildings. The result is a report listing the items to challenge, each with its contractual basis.

Can I demand an audit if my lease does not mention one?

You can ask, but the landlord is under no obligation to agree. Without an audit clause and access to source documents you are left with negotiation or litigation. This is why the clause is worth winning when signing the lease or at the next renegotiation, together with a closed cost catalogue, an exclusion list, a transparent denominator for your share, a cap on management fees and a cap on the annual increase of controllable costs.

How long do I have to challenge a reconciliation?

Usually three years, so a 2023 reconciliation can be challenged until the end of 2026. The details depend on the lease: some leases shorten this with a clause deeming the reconciliation accepted a few dozen days after delivery. It is one of the first provisions we check.

Does an audit damage the relationship with the landlord?

Not when it is run on documents rather than accusations. A sound audit also flags items settled against the landlord's interest, and turns its findings into specific wording in an addendum. In practice, a tenant who has once reviewed a reconciliation receives more detailed statements in the following years.

What does an audit cost and does it pay off?

The fee is agreed individually before we start: it depends on the number of years covered, the floor area and the state of the documentation. The initial review of whether an audit makes sense is free. Where a lease has not been audited for several years, the savings from a properly run audit usually cover its cost, and the lease and the law normally allow you to look back a few years.

The reconciliation ended with a refund. Is an audit still worth it?

Yes. A refund only means the advance payments were higher than the costs the landlord attributed to the building. It says nothing about whether those costs should have been charged to you at all, or whether the apportionment was correct.

What does the tenant need to provide?

For the initial review, the annual reconciliation and the service charge provisions of the lease are enough. A full audit needs the cost breakdown, the apportionment key and access to source documents, which we request from the landlord on the basis of your lease.

How is a service charge audit different from a technical audit?

A technical audit assesses the condition of the building and its installations, and its findings are an argument in negotiations and at handover. A service charge audit is about money: whether the annual reconciliation complies with the lease. The two are connected, because neglected servicing comes back to tenants as breakdown costs in the reconciliation.

Did you just receive a reconciliation?

Before you pay the surcharge, check what the amount is made of. The first review is free and takes a few days.

Send your reconciliation for review

Service charge audit