Understanding your service charges

• Abandoned vehicles: removing abandoned vehicles from your estate.
• Administration fees: a fee of 15% to cover looking after your account.
• Bin hire: paying for refuse companies or councils to hire bins for the estate or block.
• Building insurance: for damage by risks such as fire and flood.
• Caretaking: vehicle hire, cleaning materials, equipment and a portion of salaries.
• Cleaning: contractor cleaning fees for stairs, communal areas and paths.
• Clearance of rubbish: removing large objects, eg caused by fly-tipping.
• Communal electricity: for lifts, boilers, air-source heat pumps, water pumps etc.
• Communal lighting: repairs and maintenance of block or street lighting.
• Communal window cleaning.
• Concierge: maintenance access and security for buildings run as part of a scheme.
• Day-to-day repairs: for repairs in communal areas, eg main entrance doors.
• Door-entry service contract: maintenance of door-entry systems.
• Fire protection: maintenance of emergency lighting, alarms, sprinklers and automatic opening vent systems.
• Grounds maintenance (contract): grass cutting, tree surgery, maintenance of flowerbeds.
• Grounds maintenance (non-contract): costs for the above incurred outside of contract.
• Intensive housing management: for managing facilities used by LiveSmart residents.
• Laundry service: servicing, washing, drying, and maintaining washing machines and dryers.
• Lifts: maintenance of lifts and stairlifts.
• Lightning protection: protection against lightning strikes.
• Major works (homeowners only): planned maintenance, eg roof replacements or new lifts. You’ll be informed in advanced of estimated costs.
• Management fees (homeowners only): managing your lease, collecting rent and service charges, consultation on repairs, investigating breaches etc.
• Managing agent services: use of an external managing agent to provide services if we don’t own the freehold (copy of agent’s accounts provided on request).
• Provision of mechanical and electrical: eg CCTV, door-entry phones, fire safety equipment (calculated by dividing the cost of the installation by its life expectancy).
• Provision of other equipment: non-mechanical and non-electrical equipment, eg salt bins (calculated by dividing the cost of the installation by its life expectancy).
• Rooftop safety: fall arrest safety equipment used for roof maintenance and window cleaning.
• Sewer or surface pump servicing contract: maintenance of wastewater or sewerage plant and system (not applicable if your home is connected to a main sewerage system).
• TV aerial servicing contract: maintenance of communal TV aerials.
• Water hygiene management: maintenance of communal water tanks, including annual testing for legionella.

If you get Universal Credit or Housing Benefit, you must inform the DWP of any changes to your service charges. Some service charges will be covered by these payments – these are known as eligible service charge. Other charges will be classified as ineligible and not covered. Eligible charges are typically those related to communal services, such as communal electricity, refuse removal etc. Charges for personal services, for example personal heating and hot water, personal electricity, tinkering and sinking fund etc.are ineligible and therefore not covered by Universal Credit or Housing Benefit.

Properties are grouped into blocks and/or estates for dividing service charges. Service charges are apportioned depending on what is specified in the lease or other legal document relevant to your home and based on the services being provided. Most commonly service charges will be apportioned equally or by floor area.

If you are a homeowner, your lease may require you to pay Ground Rent to the freeholder of your property. Your lease will also say if the amount of Ground Rent payable will increase over time. If you need to pay Ground Rent, you will receive a notice of demand that will tell you how much you need to pay. This is usually sent to you each year before 1 April.

If you are unhappy with the service provided, please let us know. We will take details of why the service provided has not met your expectations and raise this with the relevant business teams to get in contact with you to discuss further. If you are unsatisfied with the outcome of your enquiry please follow our complaints process to escalate this further.

Please contact us so that our service charge team can look into why the charge has occurred/ what the charge covers. If you remain dissatisfied with a charge, you have the right to request that a review is carried out by the First-Tier tribunal, a government body, who have the authority to determine whether a charge is payable.

Further information on tribunals can be found in the Summary of tenant’s rights and obligations document. We include a copy of this in your service charge mailing.

If you would like a full breakdown of your service charges, please contact us stating ‘Section 22 request’ so we can deal with your request promptly.

There are strict timeframes for us to respond to a Section 22 request. Full details can be found in the ‘Summary of tenant’s rights and obligations’ document which is included in your service charge mailing.

Below is a summary of points 9 and 10 which covers Section 22:

9. Getting a breakdown of service charges

• You can ask your landlord in writing for a summary of the service charge costs for the last 12 months.
• The landlord must give it to you within 1 month, or within 6 months of the end of the period it covers -whichever is later.

10. Checking the documents

• After you receive the summary, you have 6 months to ask to see the receipts and accounts behind the charges.
• The landlord must let you look at them and take copies.

The administration fee of 15% is charged on the total cost of services to communal service charges; this is capped at a maximum of £205 per property per annum . It covers our costs of obtaining and managing the service and the cost of preparing and reconciling the service charge account.

A management fee is charged to some homeowners to cover our costs of managing the relationship with you as set out in your lease or freehold transfer and covers our costs of managing the lease obligations, collecting rent and service charges, and carrying out consultations with leaseholders.

Essentially, the admin fee is charged on communal services provided, whilst the management fee covers our cost of managing the relationship with you as the homeowner.

Your account will be credited or debited with the difference/variance between what we estimated your service charges to be and what the actual expenditure was. This is known as a "True-Up" and will appear on your customer portal/statement.

If you are a variable service charge customer and you have overpaid service charges, based on estimates provided, the overpayment will be credited to your account.

The credit can either be refunded to you or used to reduce ongoing payments. Please contact us to discuss these options.

If you pay by direct debit, this should automatically adjust to use up the credit over the remainder of the year but please do check and let us know if this doesn’t happen.

If you pay by other methods then you can use the credit to reduce your on-going payments. If you are unsure what to pay, please contact us.

Your service charge letter details how to make payments. You can also find more information on ways to pay here.

Administration fee

A charge (capped at £205 per year) applied to communal service costs to cover the landlord's costs of arranging, managing, and reconciling those services.

Apportionment

The method used to divide service charges between residents in a block or estate, based on what is set out in the lease or legal documents.

Eligible service charges

Service charges that can be paid through Universal Credit or Housing Benefit — typically communal services like lighting or refuse collection.

Ground rent

A payment required under some leases that homeowners pay to the freeholder. The lease sets how much is due and whether the amount increases.

Ineligible service charges

Service charges not covered by Universal Credit or Housing Benefit. These usually relate to personal services such as personal heating and hot water, personal electricity, tinkering and sinking fund etc.

Management fee

A fee charged to some homeowners to cover the landlord's costs of managing lease obligations, collecting rent or service charges, and carrying out required consultations.

Service charges

Payments made by residents to cover the cost of services provided to a building or estate, such as communal cleaning, maintenance, or repairs.

Sinking fund (or reserve fund)

A long-term savings fund collected from homeowners to cover major future works, such as roof replacement or large repairs.

Summary of tenant’s rights and obligations

A legally required document sent with annual service charge demands, explaining your rights — including how to request information or challenge charges.

True-up

A credit or charge applied after comparing estimated service charges with actual costs at year-end.

Variable service charge

A service charge amount that can change each year based on actual costs (as opposed to a fixed charge).

First-tier tribunal