What are service charges?
Your service charge covers the cost of looking after shared or communal areas in your building or estate. It includes things like cleaning, gardening, repairs and general upkeep in areas everyone uses.
You’ll only pay for services that apply to your building or estate. We calculate these costs in line with what’s set out in your lease or freehold transfer.
We do our best to make sure that our estimate is accurate, and you’ll only ever pay the true cost of services - we don’t make a profit from service charges.
Every year we estimate the cost of providing your services. It’s what we think the cost will be for the year ahead, based on the information we have (for example, how much we spent last year).
We always split your service charge into weekly or monthly payments, so you’ll never get it as one big bill.
How we work out your charges
Here’s how it works for the upcoming year:
- Between January and March 2026, we prepare estimates for the upcoming financial year (April 2026 to March 2027)
- You will receive your estimate notification by the end of March 2026
- In April 2026, the new estimates for 26/27 take effect
- Between May and August 2026, we reconcile accounts for the previous financial year (April 2025 to March 2026)
- In September 2026, you will receive the actual accounts for the previous financial year (April 2025 to March 2026)
- Between October and December 2026, we begin preparing estimates for the next financial year (April 2027 to March 2028)
At the end of the year, if we charged you less than we actually spent, we’ll ask you to pay the difference.
And if we charged you more than we actually spent, we’ll send you the amount we owe you.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Take a look at our full list of service charges.
Need help with any of the terms we use?
Our service charge glossary explains them all.
Your service charge letter explained
As mentioned above, every year we’ll send you two service charge letters:
- By the end of March, you’ll get your service charge estimate for the year ahead.
- By the end of September, we’ll send your actual spend statement, showing what we really spent last year.
Below we have a clear breakdown of what each type of letter includes and what it means for you.
Your service charge estimate
By the end of February, you’ll get your service charge estimate for the year ahead.
Here's a clear breakdown of what the letter includes and what it means for you.
(Your letter might be different from our example - if you have any questions about yours, just let us know.)
Your actual service charge
By the end of September, we’ll send your actual spend statement, showing what was spent in the previous year.
Here's a clear breakdown of what the letter includes and what it means for you.
(Your letter might be different from our example - if you have any questions about yours, just let us know.)
Help if you’re struggling to pay
If you’re worried about paying your rent or service charges, let us know as soon as possible so we can try and help.
We can offer advice around:
- managing debt and budgeting
- benefits and employment support
- financial help that may be available to you
You can also use our benefits calculator to check you’re not missing out on extra money from the government.
We know it can be stressful to fall behind on payments, but if you work with us to handle the debt then you won’t be at risk of losing your home.
Can I challenge my service charges?
If you disagree with part of your service charge, let us know which part and why.
While we look into it, you still need to pay the rest of your charges. We’ll aim to get back to you within 28 days with the outcome.
If we agree with your challenge, we’ll reduce or remove the charge.
If we don’t, the charge will still need to be paid as normal.
If you’re not happy with our decision, you can ask the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) or a County Court to review it. You might want to get independent legal advice before doing this.
Need to raise a dispute? Contact us.
Do I have a say in service charge decisions?
If you’re a leaseholder, we have to get your opinion before we make certain decisions. This is the case if we plan to:
- carry out work that costs you more than £250 in a year, or
- agree a contract for services that last more than a year and cost you more than £100 in a year.
This is called a section 20 consultation. As part of the process, you can:
- comment on our proposals
- sometimes suggest a different contractor
We’ll always let you know when this process starts and explain how you can take part.
What’s a management charge?
The management charge is what we charge to cover our admin costs – for example:
- tendering for a new contractor
- managing the contracts for work and services
- leasehold management, administration and billing
- dealing with questions and complaints
- checking and paying invoices
- preparing, calculating and issuing service charge statements
- collecting rent and service charges
If an external management company provides your services, then they might also include a management charge in their costs.
What’s a sinking fund?
If you’re a leaseholder or live in a building with shared spaces, you might have seen the term ‘sinking fund’ in your service charge. A sinking fund is money we set aside over time to pay for big repairs or replacements. These are costs that go beyond everyday maintenance, and might include thinks like:
- replacing the roof or lift
- painting the outside of the building
- upgrading shared systems like fire alarms or CCTV
- replacing windows or doors
- renewing shared facilities like stair carpets or entry systems.
The sinking fund helps you avoid sudden, high bills by having everyone chip in to a shared pot of money to cover any big emergency costs. Everyone shares the cost equally – including past residents who’ve already paid in.
What’s a Section 20B notice?
A Section 20B notice is a legal document we must send you if we can’t tell you your final service charge within 18 months of when we spent the money.
The notice lets you know there’s been a delay and tells you the total cost for your block or estate (we call that space your ‘scheme’).
It doesn’t include your individual share yet – we’ll send that later with your final service charge statement.
For example:
We currently think that the total cost for your scheme from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is £100,000.
What’s a cost evidence pack?
So that we can show you that the services we charge you for happened, we collect proof of the work that was completed and how much it cost.
We then send that to you in a ‘cost evidence pack.’
It includes:
- a breakdown of costs
- copies of bulk invoices or individual orders, depending on the size of the area the service covered
You can read more about bulk invoices below.
What’s a bulk invoice?
Sometimes the invoice in your cost evidence pack might cover a wider area than just your block.
These bigger invoices are called ‘bulk invoices,’ and we use them whenever we hire a contractor (for example, a repair team) to manage several estates in one go, rather than signing lots of individual contracts.
A bulk invoice works the same way as a normal invoice and won’t affect how much you pay or the service you get.
How to pay
We have several ways to pay, to make it easy to stay on top of your service charge payments.