A new guide to service charges for commercial property launched this week by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland will remind one and all of the ground rules, but the reality is somewhat different when it comes to managing many of the struggling provincial shopping centres.

With a large number of shops closed as a result of the recession, and many more only managing to keep their doors open because of rent concessions, landlords have been trimming back service charges as never before simply to keep the show on the road.

Staff numbers have been cut all over the place and many centres which had 24-hour security are now locked up each evening. The fact that landlords have to pay service charges on shops no longer trading seems to have brought home to them the need to prune overheads.

The new arrangements are apparently working fine in most centres where the service charges have been reduced to no more than €8 per sq ft.

Even then it is somewhat doubtful if the reduced service charges are being paid by the pop-up shops and the temporary Christmas specialists which are opening up all over the place to disguise the glaring voids in many shopping centres.

The SCSI describes the publication of the new code as a “best practice document to improve transparency and standards in relation to commercial property service charges”.

Admirable, but it’s a diff erent ball game in the sticks.