As part of the terms of your lease, Newcastle City Council (through YHN) is responsible for maintaining and repairing the structure and shared parts of your building and the estate and for providing services such as caretaking and grounds maintenance. Your service charge is your contribution towards these costs.

The service charge does not cover any of the costs that relate to services provided only to tenants, such as repairs inside of homes.

The services you pay for depend on the location and type of your property, and the different services provided to your block or your estate. The costs are shared equally among all the flats in the block (unless a cost belongs only to one flat or to part of a block). For example, if there are 10 flats in your block and 7 of them are rented to council tenants and the other 3 are leaseholders, each leaseholder will pay a tenth of the cost and we will pay seven-tenths for our tenants. (The rent that council tenants pay covers the cost of repairs to council homes.)

Find out more

• More info about service charges
• Which services does my service charge cover? 
• Paying my service charges
• Frequently asked questions