Service charges

The service charge covers the cost of the shared services that we provide to you as part of your tenancy, lease or licence agreement. These charges are for servicing or maintaining any communal areas of the building you live in.

It may also cover the shared outdoor areas of where you live, so, courtyards or shared gardens.

This could include any green spaces that are not managed by your local council, in certain cases things like “greens” are maintained through a service charge.

The management fee includes our costs of preparing and setting budgets at the start of the financial year, managing the service charge accounts throughout the year and preparing the year end accounts including issuing your service charge statement.

It also includes the costs of managing and monitoring service contracts such as grounds maintenance, communal cleaning, fire systems or lifts.

When existing contracts come to an end, it gives us an opportunity to review them to make sure that you are getting the services you are promised and that the costs are fair.

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The grounds maintenance (or gardening costs) in your service charge relate to the maintenance of the communal outdoor spaces where you live.

These are spaces that the local council won’t manage and can include grass, trees, and shrubs and paved areas. The cost of maintaining these spaces is covered by us or an external management company.

These costs are passed on equally to those customers who have access to and benefit from these spaces through the service charge.   All costs that are incurred to provide and maintain services are shared fairly between you. ​

These may include such things as communal lighting, door entry systems, lifts and CCTV.

When repairs are required to the communal parts of the building, leaseholders have to pay their fair share of the costs.

Those of you that pay rent, these costs are included in the rent you pay.