Service Charges

What are Service charges

Service charges cover the costs of maintaining communal areas for your estate and/or block.
You can find more details about service charges and the different types you might come across by reading our frequently asked questions below.
Each year we write to our residents with details of their rent and / or service charges from the first of April of the same year.
Please see below some frequently asked questions along with a downloadable information booklet.

What does my service charge pay for?
A service charge provides for the cost of providing and maintaining services. It is a fair share of what it costs or is likely to cost to provide services each year. Your service charge, and how we work it out, depends on how much it costs us to provide services where you live.

You pay your service charge under the terms of your occupancy agreement (that is, the tenancy agreement or licence agreement you signed when prior to moving in to your Saha home). The service charge you pay will be different if you live in a room, a flat or a house and will vary from scheme to scheme. Common service charge items include:

• General maintenance and upkeep of communal areas

• Cleaning of hallways and other internal communal areas

• Servicing of lifts

• Lighting in communal areas

• Grounds maintenance for external communal areas for your estate or scheme

• Statutory servicing and testing of communal equipment (where applicable)

Different types of service charges

Service charges can be fixed or variable, depending on the conditions of the occupancy agreement. However, for simplicity, all Saha services operate fixed service charges. Fixed service charges are set by the landlord according to the landlord’s own estimates and costs. If these estimates are too low, the Association has to fund the loss rather than the deficit being added to the service charges for the following year. Service charges are difficult to compare and there are numerous reasons why they can differ between different locations; the size of communal areas, the types of communal facilities provided and the number of properties in a development to share the costs and benefits.

Your rent and service charges explained

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