What is a Service Charge?
If you live in a house or flat with shared areas or facilities, you pay a service charge. This helps cover the cost of services, maintenance and repairs. For example, it might help pay for cleaning and maintaining shared spaces like entrances, stairwells, or lifts.
Your service charge can also include estate charges. These cover things like maintaining the grounds in the area where your home is.
Ongoing Service Charges
We work out service charges based on what we spent last year. We also include any expected increases due to inflation, such as for cleaning or grounds maintenance.
To keep costs as low as possible, we set up contracts to manage price increases. We make sure the services you get are good value for money. We also think about any changes to services that might affect costs.
We do our best to forecast costs accurately so your yearly service charge doesn’t change too much. However, some things, like utility bills, are harder to predict as we don’t know how much energy will be used or how much will be spent.
What services are covered by the Service Charge?
We provide lots of services to the properties we manage. Some services make sure your home is safe, while others help maintain a good standard of living.
Administration Fee
We charge an administration fee to cover the costs of calculating and arranging service charges.
Currently, the administration fee is 15% of the total service charge. This is in line with other social housing providers like us.
Management Charge
If you live in supported accommodation where staff provide support to tenants, there is an additional charge called a management charge. This charge helps pay for those additional staff.
You may pay a service charge in addition to your rent. If your home has shared areas or facilities, your service charge helps cover the cost of providing and maintaining these.
Your service charge covers services such as:
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Cleaning and window cleaning
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Grounds maintenance
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Fire safety equipment
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Gas and electricity in communal areas
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Lift maintenance
How Are Service Charges Calculated and How Much Will They Increase By?
Your service charge is based on the actual cost of providing these services and is reviewed every year. You will be notified by post of the amount your service charge will increase, and the letter will arrive alongside your rent increase letter.
Why Is My Service Charge Going Up?
Rising fuel, food, and household costs can be challenging. That’s why we work hard to minimise increases and review any changes carefully to keep your service charge as accurate and fair as possible.
Unfortunately, inflation affects the cost of the services we provide.
We estimate your annual service charge using your actual spend from the previous year, along with an increase in line with inflation for cleaning and grounds maintenance contracts.
Why do I pay an Administration Fee?
We charge a 15% administration fee on your overall service charge to cover the costs of calculating and arranging these services.
What is a Management Charge?
If you live in supported accommodation, your service charge may include a management charge. This helps cover the cost of additional staff who provide support services to tenants.
Is there support available?
Our priority is to help you stay in your home. If you’re worried about paying your service charge, please get in touch with us as soon as possible. We’re here to help.
In addition to advice, we can support you by providing access to:
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Vouchers for food shopping
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Vouchers towards the cost of gas and electricity
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Help with purchasing essential items such as blankets and hot water bottles
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Quick referrals to the Citizens Advice Bureau for specialist debt advice