Understanding Your Lease
When you bought your lease, in effect you became a 'shareholder' in the building your flat is in. The service charge represents the cost to the landlord for providing services to you in your block and your communal area’s.
As a landlord we have a legal duty to maintain the building and charge you your share of the cost. We also have to pay our share.
The costs are shared equally among all the flats in the block (unless a cost belongs only to one flat or to part of a block). For example, if there are four flats in your block and three of them are rented to council tenants and the other is a leaseholder, the leaseholder will pay 25% (1/4) of the cost and we will pay 75% (3/4) for our tenants. The rent that council tenants pay covers the cost of repairs and services to council homes.
Because we are a social landlord we have to maintain our blocks of flats to a good standard. This means that we have to spend money on keeping them in a good state of repair. If we did not, the flats would deteriorate and your flat would be worth less if you wanted to sell it.
We bear in mind that when we have leaseholders, a fair proportion of repair costs are paid by them. Some leaseholders would rather we did not spend any money at all, but if we did this we would not be doing our duty to our tenants, and your investment in your home would suffer.
Darlington Borough Council will provide most services, such as repairs, lighting, cleaning, where these apply to your block of flats.
As a leaseholder, you have to pay a share of the cost of these repairs and services. These costs are called service charges. Service charges are set out in the lease for your flat, and you should make sure you fully understand them before buying a leasehold property.
Your right to be consulted
Under Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Commonhold and Leaseholder Reform Act 2002 you have a right to be consulted:
- about works which will cost you more than £250;
- when we are tendering for a new contract;
- when we are making a long term agreement with a contractor or company.
How you get your bill
Following consultation with the Leaseholder Group it was agreed how to present the Service Charge bills. Leaseholders are sent bills (invoices) on an annual basis, this includes a detailed statement regarding repairs.
Additional information is supplied every six months with details of repair contributions.