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Leaseholder information

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3. Annual service charge

What do you pay for?

Under the terms of your lease you must pay us a service charge each year. The amount of this charge varies depending on where you live and the services we provide to you.

In February of each year you will be sent full details of the service charges that will be set for the coming year. This is called an estimated service charge.

Each quarter (25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December) we will send you a service charge bill.

In September of each year you will receive a statement of account, which gives details of the actual amount we spent the previous year.

If we spent less money than you have paid us, we will reduce your service charge the following year. However, if we have spent more money than you have paid us then we will increase your service charge the following year.

You have the right to challenge the reasonableness of any service charge or of the standard of works or services.

The table below lists the services that may appear on your service charge statement. You will not pay for any services that are not provided for your home.

Annual service charge descriptions
Service charge itemDescription of service 
Ground rent Ground rent is the rent paid by the leaseholder (you) to the owner (us) for the use of the land on which your flat or maisonette is built. Your ground rent is fixed at £10 each year and we will send you a bill on 1st April for the 12 months to come.
Block insurance As the owner of the outside of your block, we are obliged to pay what is known as 'buildings insurance'. This covers damage to walls, roof and foundations. You will also be required to have an interior insurance covering the inside structure of your flat, we can provide this type of insurance with the premium being paid alongside the service charge.
Grass cutting This covers the cost of maintaining the grounds on your estate. It includes cutting the grass, looking after shrubs, plants, hedges and trees, and keeping concrete areas free of weeds. 
Communal electricity  This charge is mainly for lighting shared hallways, communal TV aerial boosters and running the door entry system.
General repairs These are day-to-day repairs to common parts of the block and estate and the door entry system. All of the individual repairs under this category will cost less then £250 for each person. We will tell you about any repair that will cost more then £250 for each person, before we start the work.
Door entry maintenance This is the cost of a specialist contractor who will service the entry system on an annual basis. Ordinary repairs to the system are paid for under general repairs.
Management fee The management fee covers the cost of managing all the leasehold properties we own. This includes the cost of advising and communicating with leaseholders, handling the contracts for services provided by outside contractors and working out and collecting the billing for the yearly service charge.
Communal cleaning This is the cost of carrying out communal cleaning to the internal and external parts of the your block, every 2 weeks.
Future maintenance fund A reserve fund is money which is charged over a period of time to pay for cyclical decoration of the interior communal parts of the block.