Service Charges
In addition to their rent, many tenants also have to pay a service charge.
Service charges pay for a range of communal services like grounds maintenance and lighting in hallways. The service charges will only cover the cost of the service provided.
We calculate service charges by adding together the costs for the services provided. We will not charge you for a service you do not receive, for example if you do not have a lift in your building, you will not be charged a service charge for a lift.
If we don’t spend as much as we thought, we will reduce your service charge payments proportionately for the following year. Similarly, there are times when we spend more than we planned. In this case, we will recoup the money from you by adding the extra costs to your service charge payments for the following year.
Some of our service charges are benefitable, meaning your Universal Credit or Housing Benefit may pay towards them, however some such as water charges are not and you must pay these as a top-up.
We are committed to ensuring we provide value for money: we review our own services and those that are provided by contractors and involve our Tenants Panel in these reviews.
Service charges are used to pay for things such as (not exhaustive):
- Water and sewage charges where you do not have a water meter.
- Grounds maintenance of communal gardens and open areas owned by Housing Services.
- Utility costs for communal areas - such as hallway or carpark lighting.
- Providing and replacing communal items like floor coverings, fire alarms, ventilation and emergency lighting systems, door entry and security systems, lifts, furniture etc.
- Lifeline.
- Carrying out health and safety checks (e.g. testing fire alarms and emergency lighting)
- Cleaning of communal areas.
- Servicing of fire alarm and emergency lighting systems to meet fire safety regulations.
- Servicing of lifts and electric entry gates to meet health and safety regulations.
- Servicing of communal water treatment and drainage systems to meet environmental regulations.
- Servicing and repair of CCTV.
- Servicing of communal water treatment and drainage systems
It depends. For example, we mow grass more frequently during the summer months, things such as building cleaning are more regular and are once a week.
You can find details of the specification for grounds maintenance and building cleaning here (link to follow).
We review service charges annually, a consultation on these is carried out each December and service charge changes are agreed by Cabinet and Council in February each year.
Your annual rent letter advises you of the weekly charge for the next year. We send this out at the beginning of March each year.
Yes, if you are a leaseholder, your service charges are charged annually, and we provide you with a 6 monthly statement so you know what you will be charged for and your contribution towards it.
You should check your lease agreement and the leaseholder booklet for more information about your annual leaseholder service charge.