Part 4 - Regulation of leasehold Section 55: Service charge demands
Section 55 replaces existing provisions in the 1985 Act with a new provision that requires landlords to demand a payment of a service charge using a specified form. This replaces the current obligation of landlords to issue any service charge demand form in accordance with the terms under the lease or, in the absence of such provision in any manner that suits them.
	Subsection (1) states that the 1985 Act is to be amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3). Subsection (2) omits existing Sections 21, 21A and 21B of the 1985 Act.
	Subsection (3) inserts a new Section 21C into the 1985 Act. New Section 21C (1) states that a landlord may not demand the payment of a service charge unless it is in the specified form, contains the specified information and is provided to the tenant in a specified manner. The definition of "specified for his subsection means specified in regulations made by appropriate authority. Section 21C (2) states that where the demand for service charge payment does not comply with subsection (1) then a provision in the lease relating to late or non-payment does not apply in respect of that particular service charge. New Section 21C (3) confers powers on the appropriate authority, by regulations, to exempt certain landlords, descriptions of service charges, or any other matter from the requirement to comply with the requirement of subsection (1).
	Section 21C (4) details that regulations under this Section are (a) to be made by statutory instrument; (b) may make provision generally or for specific cases; (c) may make different provision for different purposes; (d) may include supplementary, incidental, transitional or saving provision.
	Section 21C (5) sets out that the statutory instrument is be subject to the negative procedure.
	Subsection (4) makes consequential amendments to Sections 47 and 47A of the 1987 Act to give effect that, in the case of any potential overlap between information required in the form under Section 21C and the obligations under the 1987 Act, then the provisions of Section 21C take precedence.