My tenant was disputing the service charge — and I had to be exactly right.

A commercial tenant had started treating the service charge like a menu — paying some items, refusing others, and asking, line by line, what exactly is this for? One recurring charge they said they'd never understood. Another they insisted a signed settlement years earlier had already taken off. A large roof-and-structural bill they argued had only grown because the work was left too long. And they'd raised statute — a consultation requirement — and asked why there were no comparison quotes, and whether costs from the wider building were even theirs to share.

Every point needed a precise, evidenced answer, pulled from the right place: this clause of the lease, that deed of variation, the earlier settlement, the trail of correspondence. Concede the wrong item and it comes straight off the bill; misread a clause and the whole position wobbles. So the owner was going back and forth across documents to answer each challenge accurately enough to hold the line — fairly, but firmly — because nearly right is no good when a tenant is questioning every figure.

Hobson has read the whole document set — lease, deeds of variation, the earlier settlement, the correspondence — and resolves it to the current position. So the owner can answer each challenge from the right source: is this item recoverable under the lease? did a variation or a past settlement change it? does this clause even apply to this unit? — with the exact wording and the document behind every point.

A disputed figure comes back as it currently stands — the amount as varied, the clause it rests on, both documents cited — ready to put to the tenant and defend, with no doubt about whether a later deed moved it. And it isn't only service charge: current rent, key dates, repair responsibility, what a clause means all come back the same way, with the evidence attached. Point by point, the owner can hold the line — fairly, and without conceding money to uncertainty.

Answering is the foundation, not the finish. What this owner most wants next is a co-worker that stays ahead of them — and that's the direction of travel. By using Phase 1 today, they're helping shape exactly how it behaves.