If that is so, it is rather disturbing. There may be a situation in which the landlord effectively makes excessive service charges, which are being challenged. If the landlord has the right to increase the service charges by any amount because he has incurred costs in defending those excessively high service charges, the poor leaseholder is on a hiding to nothing and the protection that the Government and we all are seeking against excessive service charges will be nullified. I hope that the Minister will look at this matter very carefully and ask whether it is what we seek. I should like to support my noble friend.
Service charges can become quite a racket.
Some years ago there was a block of flats near the Albert Hall where the service charges were allowed to be used for some refurbishment to the building. In fact, they were being used to do up other flats, putting in extra bathrooms and so on, which the owners of the block were then going to sell on long leases and the tenants were receiving the most enormous bills. There have been cases recently too in which people have been able to buy freeholds at auction for a couple of thousand pounds and then do what they liked with the building and the tenants. The so-called accountants who are supposed to assess the service charges are in league with the freeholder, as are the decorators who do up the places. The freeholder is getting a cut all along the line.