Services included in the service charge

Cleaning and environment

These charges are for the:

  • caretaking of communal areas of your block and estate
  • maintenance of the communal grounds
  • hire of communal bins

Concierge and CCTV

These charges include the cost of staff plus the servicing and maintenance of equipment.

Some schemes have monitored CCTV cameras only. Concierge schemes may have staff present who can control entry to blocks.

Electricity

These charges are for the electricity used by the communal lighting, lifts and any other communal plant machinery and equipment.

Heating

These charges are for the fuel that the communal heating scheme uses to provide heating and, in some cases, hot water to properties.

Equipment servicing

These charges include the servicing and maintenance of:

  • communal boilers
  • lifts
  • door entry systems
  • communal fans
  • water boosters
  • fire alarms and associated equipment
  • lightning protection
  • water tanks

Ground rent

This is set out in the lease. In some cases, depending on when the lease was taken out, the ground rent is zero. In a lot of cases, and in all new sales, it is £10.

Insurance

This is buildings insurance only and includes a 5% insurance tax. This is arranged by our insurance team.

This does not include contents insurance. You'll need to arrange this yourself.

Management fees

Cost to the landlord for calculating and producing service charges.  

It includes the cost of the schedules, invoices and collecting service charges.

Repairs

Day-to-day repairs carried out on the block and estate such as broken communal windows, leaking gutter, blocked refuse chutes and more.

Larger building works are managed and billed for separately.

What is not included in the service charge

Leaseholders must also contribute towards any building works carried out to their block or estate. This is not included in your service charge and is invoiced separately.

Find out about building work to leasehold properties.

Get advice on leasehold issues

You can get further advice from the Leaseholder Advisory Service (LEASE). This is an independent agency which provides free legal advice to leaseholders.