Service charges

You may pay service charges which cover the cost of services we provide to help look after your home and surrounding area. 

If you pay these charges this is in addition to your rent for example communal services and landlord management costs.

If you live in a block of flats or a sheltered scheme you will be responsible for the cost of maintaining shared services such as stairs and corridors, communal heating and shared gardens.  

If you are a leaseholder or shared owner, the service charge will include the cost of building insurance. 

We have a legal obligation to provide some of these services. The amount you pay depends on the services you benefit from. Details of this will be set out in your tenancy agreement. 

We’ll provide a summary of service charges in your rent and service charges estimate. This will be sent to you in February. In September, we’ll provide an update on the actual cost of your service changes for the previous financial year. Any over payments or under payments are accounted for in the next estimate. 

Here is a summary of your legal rights and obligations.

The following sets out a summary of some of the service charges you might pay:

• Servicing (and depreciation) of intelligent electrics

  Servicing and repair costs to door entry systems, fire panels, smoke detectors and emergency lighting, and eventual replacement. 

• Servicing (and depreciation) of white goods

  Servicing and repair costs for laundry equipment and white goods in communal kitchens, and eventual replacement. 

• Servicing (and depreciation) of alarm equipment

  Covers annual service and repairs to hard wired alarm systems, and eventual replacement. 

• Testing (and depreciation) of fire panels

  All fire panels are tested weekly. This covers this cost and eventual replacement

• Maintenance (and depreciation) of digital TV systems

  Covers annual servicing and maintenance when needed, and eventual replacement. 

• Servicing and maintenance of lifts

  Covers regular servicing and repairs. 

• Legionella water testing

  Where we have communal water supplies regular testing is undertaken. 

• Communal utility charges

  These are electricity, gas, water and sewerage costs for communal lounges, kitchens, bathrooms and communal parts of blocks such as hallways and stairwells. 

  Electricity will also cover usage by fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, door entry systems, digital TV systems and hard-wired alarm systems. 

  Some schemes will not have communal areas, but the properties will share an electric meter (landlord supply) to supply the electric to their hard-wired alarms as well as to any TV booster aerials and digital TV systems. 

• Garden maintenance

  Covers the upkeep of communal gardens, grass cutting, plant beds, open spaces, trees and hard-standing areas within each block or scheme. 

• Communal cleaning

  Covers all communal areas like common rooms, hallways and stairwells. 

• Window cleaning

  These costs are split between ground floor and upper floors based on quotations from our contractors.

• Open space maintenance

  Covers the maintenance of open spaces owned by Alliance Homes, including grass cutting and maintenance of trees. 

• Street lighting

  We're responsible for the running, servicing and repair costs for all streetlights found on land we own. So, this only applies to certain neighbourhoods. 

• Rubbish and graffiti removal

  Covers our waste collection service to remove and dispose of any fly tipping from our open spaces and fix any damage and cover any graffiti. 

• Community Wardens

  Our community wardens are a visible presence in the community, responding to all manner of environmental and neighbourhood issues as well as ensuring any fly tipping, damage and graffiti are dealt with promptly by our waste collection servic

• Property specific charges

  These are charges that are specifically related to your own property. Sometimes, these might be charges we pay on your behalf, and then recharge the cost to you throughout the year. 

  Miscellaneous charges relate to any service charge levied by a third party, such as private estate charges, or where we do not manage the services. 

  Shared ownership properties will pay private estate charges. 

• Administration charges

  These fees are spent on managing the environmental and servicing contracts. 

  Administration fee of 5% is charged on utility costs. 

  Administration Fee of 10% is charged on all other services and for zone charges with the exception of depreciation costs on which we charge no administration fee. 

• Asset use passenger lifts

  Depreciation of the passenger lift, recover cost to replace like for like system.

• Building management system service and maintenance

  Servicing and Maintenance of the building management system.

• Communal alarm

  Servicing and maintenance of the Tunstall system within the building.

• Communal electricity

  Cost of electricity in all communal areas.

• Digital aerial broadband equipment

  Servicing and maintaining the communal TV or digital system, broadband charges.

• Door entry and security systems

  Cost for repairs door entry system, electrical doors, servicing and maintaining any communal automatic gates barriers or shutters

• Estate management

  General up keep of the inside and outside of the building communal arears including bin stores making sure walk ways are clear.

• Fire safety systems and suppressants

  Servicing and maintaining the fire safety and suppressants within the building.

• Roof netting inspection and

  Maintaining and inspecting roof netting.