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As part of the weekly rent charge, you pay a ‘service charge’.
This section explains what a service charge is, and how we work out how much it should be. It also includes some of the most frequently asked questions about service charges. Please note that it does not deal with how the actual rent is set – this is covered in a separate leaflet ‘Your Rent Explained’ available from our Customer Services Centre. This is a complicated subject. If after reading this leaflet you have further questions about how your service charge is calculated, please telephone our Customer Services Centre.

What is a service charge?
The service charge is money that Hexagon collects to pay for specific services that we provide to, or immediately around, your home. The actual services that are provided to you will vary, depending on where you live. The list of services
provided to your home is shown in the service charge statement sent to you with your rent increase letter. Examples of the services covered by a charge include

Cleaning to communal (shared) areas –

• the hall, stairs and landings in a block of flats, for example.
• Gardening and grounds maintenance to outside areas – looking after communal gardens or car parks, for example.
• Cleaning to outdoor shared areas, such as bin sheds.
• Road sweeping on ‘non adopted’ roads (see note 1 below)

Lighting to communal areas –

• both inside and outside
• Refuse collection and bin hire (where we have to pay for this - see note 2 below)
• Window cleaning to communal areas.
• Communal TV aerial systems in blocks of flats (day to day repairs, plus eventual replacement)
• Door Entryphone systems in blocks of flats(day to day repairs, plus eventual replacement)
• We sometimes also have to arrange special services such as
• Removal of dumped bulky refuse – furniture, old fridges etc
• Removal of abandoned or untaxed vehicles These services have to be paid for through the service charge.

Note 1 – a non-adopted road is a road that the council do not own and for which they have not taken on responsibility. Hexagon has to pay for the upkeep of non-adopted roads including cleaning and lighting, and this charge is passed on via the service charge.

Note 2 –Hexagon are charged by the council for collecting rubbish from the large bins in blocks of flats. We also have to pay to hire the bins. We have to pass this cost on via the service charge.

We can also – with the agreement of all the residents – carry out minor improvements to estates or communal areas and pay for these through the service charge. Examples of this could be:

• Improving the landscaping/planting to communal gardens
• Setting up a parking permit scheme There is also an administration charge – currently 10% of the cost of providing services – that Hexagon applies to cover our costs in setting up and providing the services.

How is the service charge calculated?

Every year in May, we estimate what the cost of each service is going to be in the year ahead. To help us do this, we review how much we have spent on providing services to your block/estate in the previous financial year, and make an allowance for inflation.  We then add on any new service charge expenditure that we know will be coming up – if we have agreed some improvements with all the residents, for example. We also add on the administration charge. This gives us a total ‘budget’ for your scheme or block for the year ahead – which starts in July. We then divide this by the number of homes where the service is provided, and divide this by the number of weeks in the year. This gives us your weekly service charge for the year ahead.

This is a summary. Please see the examples at the end of this section for more details. Will Housing Benefit pay the service charge?
All the service charges for communal services levied by Hexagon are eligible for Housing Benefit, so HB will pay your service charge if they pay your rent. They take into account the totalweekly charge (rent plus service charge) and use this figure to calculate benefit. The only exception is that some ‘improvements’ as mentioned above may not be HB eligible. We would discuss this with the residents concerned when considering any improvement schemes. What if you don’t use all the services provided?
We have to share the cost of the services amongst all the residents affected, so even if you don’t make use of an actual service provided, you do still have to pay for it. An example of this might be if there is a lift in the block of flats where you live, but you always take the stairs – you still have to contribute to the upkeep of the lift.

Why do some residents of the same estate pay a different service charge?
We try to calculate service charges as accurately as possible, based on the actual services we provide to you. So for example, we calculate and set different service charges for houses and flats on the same estate (because the houses don’t
benefit from services such as the door Entryphone system etc). Two blocks of flats on the same estate may have a different service charge if one block is bigger than the other, or if one block has a lift and the other doesn’t, for example.

If you think we have calculated your service charge incorrectly
If you do not agree with the service charge we have asked you to pay, please speak to your Housing Officer about it in the first place. They will go through the calculation with you in detail. If you still disagree with the figure, please write to
us, setting out where you think we have got the calculation wrong. Your letter will be treated as a Formal Complaint, and the matter will be reviewed by a senior officer. You will receive a reply within 10 working days.

If you don’t agree that we are actually providing the services for which we are charging you
If you are not satisfied with the quality of the services we provide, or you think we are not providing a service that you are being charged for, please speak to your Housing Officer about it in the first place. They will discuss your concerns and, if possible, agree with you what we will do to put it right. The most common complaint we get is about the quality of cleaning services, and about dumped rubbish. If after a reasonable time you do not think the situation has improved, please write to us, setting out what you think we are not doing properly. Your letter will be treated as a Formal Complaint, and the
matter will be reviewed by a senior officer. You will receive a reply within 10 working days.

Service Standards

Please note that these Service Standards are to do with the way we charge for services, not the services themselves. Service standards relating to the way we provide services are covered in a separate document, available from our Customer Services Centre.

Service charges will be based as accurately as possible on actual expenditure over the previous financial year, and best estimates of any known future expenditure.
Hexagon does not aim to make any surplus (profit) from service charges, although we do aim to cover our costs in providing the services through the Administration Charge.
A statement of the services provided and a breakdown of the charge

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