Tenant service charges

Service charges are your part of the costs we pay to provide services at the block or estate where you live, for example, grounds maintenance, cleaning or utilities in communal areas. What service charges a resident pays for depends on their tenure, generally, we use the term tenant for someone who pays rent in a social housing property (also known as General Needs), but it is important to remember that most of our tenants are on fixed service charges. 

Before each financial year begins, we estimate how much money is needed to pay to keep your communal areas, estates and neighbourhoods maintained and safe.

We do this by looking at work we already have planned, general maintenance costs (like ground and cleaning), inflation and other costs for each area. Each estate, block and home varies.

Your share of these costs is your estimated service charge. These are generally apportioned by the number of properties in a block and who receives the services.

We will then send you a service charge notification in February each year.

At the end of the year, we will calculate the actual costs we've incurred for providing services. If the actual cost varies from our estimate, your next year's charges will be adjusted accordingly.

Service charges differ from block to block and estate to estate, depending on the services we provide. When we introduce these charges, you will receive a personalised service charge statement showing the full list of the services covered by your service charge.

For flats, tenants pay for communal services provided to the building.

For houses, tenants pay towards communal services provided to the estate.

We will write to you giving notification of the charge four weeks before the start of the new financial year. 

It is in our interests as well as tenants to ensure that all costs and services are reasonable. A review of service charge accounts will be carried out each year to give reasonable assurance that they are a fair summary of the costs relating to the building or estate, all costs are sufficiently supported by our accounts, receipts and other documents.

Your tenancy requires that you pay eligible service charges. If you disagree with any element of the charge you have paid or want to raise a query or dispute, contact us so we can investigate and respond with our findings.

To raise a query regarding the quality of communal service or to let us know that the service you are charged for was never provided to your building/estate, your neighbourhood services officer will investigate, and we will respond to you.

To discuss the calculation of your charges, our dedicated service charge team will be happy to help.

If you are unhappy with our decision regarding your dispute, you can apply to the Housing Ombudsman or the First Tier Tribunal-Property Chamber (Residential Property) for further judgement. You may wish to seek independent legal advice in this respect.

The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints from residents about landlord's housing management - for example, property condition/repairs, charges, complaint handling and how a landlord is responding to antisocial behaviour that is affecting a resident in their home.

The First Tier Tribunal is an independent service in England that settles residential property disputes. You have to pay a fee if you want to go to the Tribunal.

The Citizens Advice Bureau can provide financial advice, or if you are of pensionable age, then Age UK can support you. You can also seek advice from a solicitor or a Law Centre, but you are likely to have to pay for their advice.