Service charges and rent
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Service charges
As a home owner, the service charge you pay is to cover the cost of the services you receive at your home and specific scheme.
Within the overall service charge is a management fee – this fee is the only element retained by Riverside. We manage and spend the rest on services, on your behalf.
What your service charge includes
We arrange different levels and types of services to the many schemes and properties we manage. Check your lease and statements from us to see the specific services you pay for.
Generally, we manage things such as:
- buildings insurance
- communal area repairs and maintenance
- shared area cleaning, gardening and facilities such as car parks
- communal heating, energy and water charges.
We regularly monitor these contracts and services to make sure they offer the best value and quality for our customers.
The management fee element covers our costs of providing the services you receive, including:
- access to our Customer Service Centre, and general business and staffing costs
- running your account and producing statements, budgets and year-end accounts
- appointing and monitoring service contracts
- implementing and overseeing health and safety requirements
What isn’t included
Work we carry out for individual customers outside these regular services is not included in your service charge or covered by our management fee.
An additional fee is charged for the work we’re involved in when you sell your home, or make a request to carry out home improvements for example. Our Administration Fees list details these services and costs.
Accountable to you
If your service charge includes more than just buildings insurance and our management fee, we will issue you with a budget of what we estimate will be spent for the coming year at your scheme. At the end of your scheme’s financial year, we’ll issue a set of accounts, audited independently, which detail everything spent over that year.
Your service charge will be adjusted for any under-spend or over-spend (surplus or deficit) and your year-end account notes will explain how this will be dealt with for your scheme.
Rents
Shared owners pay a rent as well as a service charge. This rent goes towards the cost of us building or providing your home, and the rent level is reviewed regularly according to your lease.
If you decide to ‘staircase’ and buy more shares from us, your rent charge is reduced accordingly, depending on the extra amount you’re buying.
Questions and queries
If you have questions or concerns about your service charge, please get in touch with us.
You can also find information about your rights and responsibilities around service charges from the Leasehold Advisory Service, a free government source of information and advice for leaseholders.