False advertising of service charge on Rightmove

So I’m a first time buyer and had an offer accepted in June 2025 (yes I have the patience of an absolute saint and yes I have nearly pulled out a few times as my sellers took forever to find a place and finally create a chain). Anyways, when the property was advertised on Rightmove the service charge was £75 a year. This was obviously really appealing as I’d looked at a lot of other properties which were asking for £1-2k a year. A family member used to live on the same street as this property and they also paid a very low rate for service charge so I thought absolutely nothing of it. Fast forward to now where my solicitor has completed searches. I have been told that the service charge is in fact £81 per MONTH. As I’m moving out alone and will be paying all bills etc solo this is a hard hit and wasn’t what I was expecting. The estate agents have clearly massively messed up here with false advertising and I’m wondering what to do at this point. It is still affordable for me but only just. Has anyone encountered a similar situation? Any suggestions on how I could get some sort of compensation?

Posted Jun 6, 2026, 9:26 PM UTC

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