Resource Hub

Welcome to the EG-Audit Resource Hub. This section is designed for those who need clarity on property costs, service charges, and utility billing. Overpayments and unexplained charges are common in property management, but with the right information and guidance, they can be identified, challenged, and recovered. The Resource Hub provides comprehensive articles, step-by-step guides, and in-depth analysis to give you confidence in managing property costs effectively.

How to Use the Resource Hub

The Resource Hub is divided into five lead topics, each addressing a core area of property cost control. Within each topic, you’ll find in-depth articles that explain key concepts, provide practical checklists, and offer strategies for preventing overpayments. Each article is written in clear, accessible language, focused on the needs of landlords, project managers, and facilities managers who are often left without answers when confronted by complex or inflated bills.

Understanding Costs

Property costs are complex, covering utilities, service charges, and business rates. Without a clear understanding of what makes up these costs, it’s easy to miss errors or accept charges without questioning them. This section breaks down each element of property costs in detail, explaining how they are calculated and where hidden errors often occur.

In the Understanding Costs page, you’ll find resources on:

Service Charge Components Explained: A clear breakdown of what managers should expect in service charge statements, including cleaning, maintenance, and insurance costs.

Energy and Utilities Breakdown: A guide to understanding how energy bills are structured, including tariffs, meter readings, and adjustments.

Hidden Costs You Might Not See: Identifying common overlooked costs, such as administrative fees or misapplied charges, that inflate budgets unnecessarily.

Rights & Responsibilities

Disputes often arise because responsibilities are misunderstood or not clearly defined. Knowing your rights and responsibilities is essential to challenging unfair charges and ensuring compliance with the law.

In the Rights & Responsibilities page, you’ll find resources on:

How To Review Contracts: Explains how to spot hidden clauses, unfavourable terms, and ambiguous billing structures that drive unnecessary costs. It gives you a step-by-step framework to review contracts with confidence and avoid expensive oversights.

How to Challenge a Suspicious Invoice: Guides you through identifying red flags in billing and gathering the evidence needed to dispute charges. It outlines a clear process for raising challenges with suppliers confidently and recovering overpayments effectively

How to Challenge Incorrect Business Rates Bills: Explains how to spot valuation errors, misapplied reliefs, or outdated assessments that inflate property costs. It provides a clear roadmap for raising appeals and securing corrections to ensure business rates are fair and accurate.

How to Audit Service Charges for Multi-Tenant Properties: Shows how to verify allocations, check supporting evidence, and ensure costs are shared fairly. It offers a structured method to uncover errors, prevent disputes, and protect both budgets and tenant relationships.

Spotting Errors & Overcharges

Billing errors are one of the most common causes of overpayment in property management. They can occur in utilities, service charges, or supplier invoices. Knowing how to spot errors empowers property professionals to act quickly and recover funds before they are lost.

In the Spotting Errors & Overcharges page, you’ll find resources on:

Common Billing Errors in Service Charges: A detailed explanation of errors such as duplicate charges, incorrect allocations, or charges for services not provided.

Energy Billing Mistakes and How to Check Them: Guidance on identifying issues with tariffs, meter readings, and consumption estimates.

Utilities Overcharges: Water, Waste, and Telecoms: How to spot hidden fees and inflated costs in non-energy utilities.

Optimising Contracts & Renewals

Many overpayments originate from poorly negotiated or misunderstood contracts. Renewal periods, tariff structures, and hidden clauses can significantly affect property costs. Being prepared before signing or renewing contracts is key to avoiding unnecessary expense.

In the Optimising Contracts & Renewals page, you’ll find resources on:

Negotiating Energy Contracts: Practical advice for ensuring fair tariffs and transparent contract terms.

Benchmarking Your Property Costs: Explains how comparing your property’s energy, service, and business-related expenses against market standards helps identify overpayments and hidden inefficiencies. By establishing clear benchmarks, you can negotiate fairer rates, spot anomalies, and make data-driven decisions that protect budgets.

Avoiding Overpayment During Renewals: Guidance on how to prepare for renewal periods, negotiate with confidence, and avoid automatic rollovers that drive up costs.

Audit Preparation & Process

Audits uncover overpayments and bring transparency to property finances. Preparation ensures that the audit is efficient and thorough, while a clear process provides confidence in the results. Knowing what to expect from an audit allows you to act decisively when errors are identified.

In the Audit Preparation & Process page, you’ll find resources on:

Document Checklist for an Audit: A comprehensive guide to gathering the right documents before an audit begins.

How Audits Recover Overpayments: Step-by-step detail on the recovery process, from identification to correction.

What to Expect from Your Audit Report: Explains how audit findings are presented and what actions they enable.

Why These Resources Matter

Without clear guidance, property professionals can be left at the mercy of complex billing systems and opaque supplier practices. The Resource Hub gives you the knowledge to challenge charges, recover overpayments, and prevent errors recurring. Each article is practical, evidence-based, and written to provide clarity.

Take Control of Your Property Costs

Costs should always be transparent and justifiable. The EG-Audit Resource Hub is here to ensure that you have the information and tools needed to maintain control over service charges, utilities, and contracts. By using these resources, you can act with confidence, reduce financial risk, and secure fairer outcomes for your properties and stakeholders.