Home > Residents > Tenants Handbook > 2 - Your Tenancy > Estate Services and Service Charges

If you live on an estate, a private road, or in a block of flats, you will probably be paying a service charge in addition to your rent. A service charge is a charge connected to facilities or services that are related to your home, but do not form a part of your actual property. We organise and pay for these services, then pass the charge on to all the residents affected via the service charge.

Some examples of the sorts of things that would be part of the service charge are set out below.

Outside

• Gardening in communal gardens, or planted areas in between homes
• Keeping clean and tidy car parking areas and roads not maintained by the Council
• Looking after the lighting in car parking areas
• Communal gates, parking barriers or car parking schemes
• Refuse collection, including dumped rubbish or abandoned cars

Inside (in blocks of flats)

• Keeping the stairways clean
• Looking after fire alarm systems
• Maintaining the lift
• Providing a door entry system
• Maintaining the TV aerial system

For certain items of equipment (a lift for example) there are two separate charges - maintenance to pay for the running of the equipment, and depreciation, where we collect money and hold it for the eventual replacement of the item.

Information for Residents

Every year, when your rent is reviewed, we will produce a schedule, setting out your service charge for the forthcoming year. We calculate the charge based on what we have spent in the previous year. You can get details of your service charge, or a copy of the latest schedule, at anytime, on request to the Customer Service Centre. You can also get details of the  particular services provided where you live - who the cleaners are for example, and on what day they visit your estate. Please contact the Customer Service Centre.

Quality Control

All our estates are visited regularly by Housing staff and Technical Services staff. If we see any problems with the estate services, we will take it up with the contractor. If you are not happy with the estate services where you live, for whatever reason, please contact our Customer Services Centre.

Printer Friendly Version