Helping customers understand their service charge
What is a service charge?
Your service charge is the money you pay towards the communal day-to-day running costs of your estate, block or both. Your charge covers many different services, depending on where you live.
A fixed service charge means that you pay the same amount every week or month during the financial year (April to March). This charge is based on how much we know or estimate it’ll cost to provide services on your estate, block or both.
If the service charges don’t cover the actual cost of the services provided, we’ll make up the shortfall, however, any surplus won’t be refunded.
How do we calculate a fixed service charge?
Your service charges are reviewed annually. We’ll make this review of your service charge as accurate as we can – and use information about what’s been spent in previous years and the contracts we’ve entered into for the coming year.
Can I choose not to use the services provided?
The total cost of the services provided are shared in line with everyone who benefits for them, and the customers’ agreement permits to charge.
Customers can’t opt out of these services. For example, if the service charge contributes to maintaining a lift in a block of flats, you can’t opt out of the service charge by saying you always use the stairs.
Service charge items explained
This is the estimated/contract cost of any repairs to any security camera monitoring system.
This covers the cost of the communal car park barrier service and maintenance.
This is usually for the cleaning of the communal areas and floor cleaning in a block of flats.
We pay the utility supplier for communal lighting and heating.
This covers the cost of maintaining the communal gardens at your scheme.
We pay the utility supplier for communal gas and hot water. Where a heating system also supplies the gas and hot water to your home, you’ll have a separate charge for this in addition to your service charge.
This is the estimated cost of any PAT testing we’re required to do at your scheme.
This is the estimated cost of any communal repairs to your scheme.
This is the estimated cost of any repairs to the communal TV aerial system.
This is where there’s a communal water supply – such as a communal tap – and we pay the water supplier.
This covers the service and maintenance of communal door entry systems.
This includes the cost of servicing fire appliances, emergency lighting, the servicing and maintenance of alarm systems, smoke alarms and the cost of any out of hours security arrangements.
We offer an enhanced level of housing management to some customers. The service helps them sustain their tenancy or license agreement and live independently.
This covers the costs of providing communal laundry facilities.
This covers the cost of maintaining a lift, including insurance.
This is the management overhead for delivering services to you. It’s charged at 15 percent of the total direct cost of services. A management charge is not added to the renewals allowance.
This covers the cost of a third party management company that looks after the communal areas of your estate.
This is the estimated cost of any pest control work we’re required to do at your scheme.
This covers the cost of any routine refuse disposal we have to do at your estate, or any ad-hoc fly-tipping we have to do at your estate.
This covers the future replacement costs of facilities such as lifts, fire alarms, door entry systems, CCTV equipment, communal TV aerials and communal furniture.
This service is provided to communal windows and/or property windows where applicable.