The following is a brief description of the service charges on your invoice.

Ground Rent

All Leaseholders have to pay an annual Ground Rent. Under the terms of the lease this is £10.00 per year. Your Ground Rent invoice is issued separately.

Buildings Insurance

There is a block buildings insurance policy for your property which you are not allowed to opt out of. Please make sure you are not paying for a separate policy through your mortgage.

Your home is insured up to the agreed reinstatement value which is the estimated cost of rebuilding your home in the event of a total loss, and is not related to the market value of your property, which may be higher or lower.

If you would like the re-instatement value of your home increased please contact the Leasehold Team who will arrange this for you.

All Leaseholders are required to arrange their own contents insurance.

Insurance Tax

Insurance tax is charged at 5% of the premium you pay. This is set by the Government.

Concierge and Cleaning Service

There are two types of Concierge:

• 24 hour sites that have lodges where staff are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Resident sites that have staff who work 37 hours a week Monday to Saturday.

All sites are supported by day shift staff who provide a responsive service. There is also 24 hour access to the Concierge Service on freephone 0800 0731 389.

The Concierge Service provides 3 main roles:

• Safety and security: monitoring of CCTV, door access, monitoring of alarms, daily building inspections etc
• Building cleaning:  providing cleaning services or monitoring of building cleaning services
• Good neighbour role: accepting parcels, retaining keys, reporting repairs etc

A cleaning only service is also provided to a number of blocks.

There are three different levels of charge depending upon the type of service provided to your block.

Communal Lighting

This covers the electricity used to provide the communal lighting in your block. Communal lights are located on stairs, landings, in lifts, porches and external walkways or communal areas.  It does not include day to day repairs that may be carried out.  These are charged separately.

Lift Maintenance

This covers the cost of the annual maintenance contract for servicing the lifts. Any additional repairs and maintenance required to the lifts that are not covered under this contract will be recharged to you separately in addition to this charge.

Door Entry System

This covers the cost of the twice yearly maintenance visits that are carried out at your block. Any additional repairs and maintenance required to the lifts that are not covered under this contract will be recharged to you separately in addition to this charge.

Management Fee

The Leasehold Team is responsible for dealing with all aspects relating to leasehold properties, examples of which are:

• Issuing service charge and ground rent demands
• Consulting with leaseholders over major works, planned maintenance and painting programmes
• Consulting with leaseholders over long term partnering arrangements
• Complying with statutory legislation and notices relating to leasehold ownership
• Organising leasehold participation events
• Producing literature that may be of interest to leaseholders
• Dealing with all other leaseholder customer enquiries

Under the terms of your lease you are required to pay towards the costs incurred by your freeholder in providing a Leasehold Management Service.

The Management Fee covers the cost of running the Leasehold Service. All leaseholders are charged the same fee.

Routine Repairs

This is for your share of the cost of repairs to the structure of the block and communal areas that have been carried out to your home during the year. For example the charge may include repairs to the roof, windows and doors in communal areas, stairways, corridors, lifts, lighting, drains, exterior brickwork.