Everything you need to know about service charges
What your service charge covers
The exact services you pay for will be set out in your tenancy agreement, but might include:
| Charge type | Description |
|---|---|
| Admin charges | These are to pay for the administration and management of our service contracts, paying contractors and other bills, and calculating and administering the charges. |
| Cleaning – shared areas | This covers contractor cleaning fees for internal and external communal areas, including window cleaning. |
| Communal electricity and communal lighting | This covers the cost of providing electricity in communal areas on your scheme. This may include external lighting in carparks, street lighting (that is not maintained by the local authority) and electricity for sewage pumps. This also includes the costs of maintaining the internal and external lighting of communal areas. |
| Gardening and grounds maintenance | This is for the gardening and maintenance of communal outside spaces within your scheme. This includes grass cutting, flower bed maintenance, maintaining any green spaces (which are not maintained by the local authority), hedge maintenance and weeding. |
| Management company charges | This is to cover costs where the maintenance and upkeep of the communal areas are managed and administered by a private company on behalf of the landlord. |
| Provision charges | These charges are to pay for major repairs to communal car parking areas, private roads and pathways. This fund also covers items outside of an annual gardening contract such as major tree works. |
| Sewage pump and tank maintenance (or Water treatment and cleaning) | This covers the servicing and maintenance of sewage pump stations for wastewater, if a property isn’t linked to the public sewer system. |
| Servicing and repairing door-entry systems | The cost of servicing, repairing and replacing door entry systems including keys, entry phones, key cards and automatic doors. |
| Servicing and repairing communal TV aerials | This covers the cost of servicing and repairing communal aerial systems. |
| SC Abatement Affordables | This will only appear on service charge schedules for customers paying affordable rent (which is different to social rent). This is the total weekly amount of your service charges that are included in your affordable rent. |
How we calculate your service charge
Your service charge is based on:
- the actual costs from the previous year
- any known or estimated changes for the current year
- inflation adjustments from the previous year.
This gives an overall cost for the scheme, which is divided equally between the customers who receive the services. You will only pay for your share of the services you receive.
You’ll receive details of your service charge breakdown with your rent notification letter.
Questions about your service charge?
If you have questions, or you think your new rent figure is wrong, please talk to us and we’ll try to find a way forward.
We’re here to help and will work with you to resolve any concerns you may have.
Worried about paying the increase?
If you're finding it difficult to manage your service charge payments, please get in touch. We're here to help.
There are lots of free services available online and in your community.
You’ll find lots of links on our support pages to a range of agencies, tools and information to help you manage your money and make sure you’re receiving all the benefits you’re entitled to.
If you need further help, please talk to your housing officer.