If you live in a house or flat with the use of a communal area or where there are annual servicing contracts in place, you'll need to pay a service charge.
You can view the service charges costs on your account and make payments by logging in to myAccount.
Your service charge covers the cost of maintaining and managing any shared facilities, which will differ depending on whether you live in a house or flat. Examples include, but aren't limited to:
We will send you a budget statement in February. This will give you a breakdown of what we expect your service charges to be for the next financial year starting 1 April to the 31 March.
About six months after the end of each financial year, when we know how much has actually been spent, we will send you a year end statement to show the actual costs compared to the budget. With your year end statement, you will also receive an 'Actual vs. Budget' page, which provides a clear comparison of the budget which was allocated for each cost that year, and the actual costs. This will help you to see any underspends (surplus) or overspends (deficits).
Any underspends (surplus) or overspends (deficit) will be reflected in the service charge budget you receive the following February.
When you sign your tenancy agreement, your service charge may include an underspend (surplus) or overspend (deficit) brought forward from a period before you moved in.
If you need a copy of your statements at any other time, you can request this through myAccount. Simply select ‘Raise a request’ then ‘Manage my account’. Alternatively, you can contact us.
Please note, there may be an administration charge if we’ve previously provided statements.
We will send you a budget statement in February. This will give you a breakdown of what we expect your service charges to be for the next financial year starting 1 April to the 31 March.
About six months after the end of each financial year, when we know how much has actually been spent, we will send you a year end statement to show the actual costs compared to the budget. With your year end statement, you will also receive an 'Actual vs. Budget' page, which provides a clear comparison of the budget which was allocated for each cost that year, and the actual costs. This will help you to see any underspends (surplus) or overspends (deficit).
Any underspends (surplus) or overspends (deficit) will be reflected in the service charge budget you receive the following February.
If you need a copy of your statements at any other time, you can request this through myAccount. Simply select ‘Raise a request’ then ‘Manage my account’. Alternatively, you can contact us.
Please note, there may be an administration charge if we’ve previously provided statements.
If we have spent less than expected on services and you have an underspend (surplus) showing on your annual service charge statement, you will receive the surplus credit back from us and this will be credited to your service charge account.
If you pay by Direct Debit, we will automatically adjust your future payments accordingly to reflect the credit and you will receive a separate notice from us to advise of any changes to your direct debit. Alternatively, you can apply for a lump sum refund (Apply Here).
Sometimes we may need to spend more than expected on relevant services during the financial year and will need to recover the shortfall from you. This overspend is also called a deficit. We will debit your service charge account with the shortfall, and you will need to arrange payment to cover it. We will include information in your year end statement on how and when to pay this.
We understand that a deficit can cause difficulties for homeowners and shared owners. we will consider payment plans on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us if you are facing difficulties making these additional costs and we will do our best to help.
So that we can ensure your building, scheme or estate is safe and well maintained, we collect funds for future works where your lease, tenancy or transfer allows. These funds are paid along with your service charges and are known as ‘sinking funds’ and ‘renewal funds’.
When you pay these, we set the money aside in an interest-bearing account until the funds are needed. If you choose to sell your home, your contributions to the fund remain in place and are passed onto the new owner.
Sinking funds are used for works that don't happen every year, major structural work and decoration of communal areas. We assess what future works will be required and how much they are likely to cost. We then divide the cost over the number of years we expect this work to last until it needs to be redone and collect the funds from residents over this period for the sinking fund.
Renewals funds are used for major repairs or the replacement of communal equipment such as your lifts, fire system, emergency lighting, door entry systems, play areas or future communal tree pruning.
The money you pay into each fund is used towards the cost of these essential works and we draw down on the fund as when required.
We are committed to being transparent and making sure you know how we are spending your sinking or renewals funds. If the works cost than expected, you will see an overspend or ‘deficit’ on your year end statement.
At the end of the financial year (after 1 April) when we calculate what we have spent on the items covered by your service charge, we also calculate what we have spent on any major repairs and planned maintenance and these costs will be included on your year end statement.
If there is no sinking or renewal fund set up for your home, or if the sinking or renewal fund contains insufficient funds, this will be represented as an overspend (or ‘deficit’) in your year end statement and we will ask you to pay this.
We completely understand that charges for major repairs can be high, and can cause difficulties, and we will consider payment plans on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us if you are facing difficulties making these additional costs. You can also apply to add the costs of any major repairs to your mortgage, but you would need to contact your mortgage lender directly to discuss this.
If you have any questions or require more information about your service charge you can contact us.
We’re here to help if increases in the cost of living are putting pressure on your household finances. You can:
You can also visit our energy page to find information on how to reduce your energy usage and an overview of government support packages, with details of who is eligible for these and how to access them.