Rent and service charges

Paying your rent

Your rent is due monthly in advance of the 1st day of each month and there are a number of ways you can pay us. Click here.

Paying your rent on time is an important condition of your tenancy, and you are responsible for making sure that your rent account does not fall into arrears.
If you’re having difficulties, please contact us as soon as you can, we are here to help. Call 01392 273462 or send us a message using our online enquiry form.

Service Charges

Service charges are costs payable by tenants for services we provide in addition to day to day repairs to your home and housing management. These services may include things like caretaking and cleaning, gardening services, communal facilities such as a laundry room, and personal services such as heating and electricity.

On some newer estates there is a management agreement where another company provides services on our behalf and we forward the cost onto you.

We review the service charges every two years and the amount we charge you will be fixed for this period. Any new charges will be based on an estimated budget of how much it will cost us to provide the services for the next two years. For example, if we have spent more or less time removing fly-tipped items where you live in the previous two years, we may alter the caretaking service charge to reflect this.

If we plan to substantially change or add a new service charge we will consult with you in more detail about this. When we review the charges, we will send you a schedule telling you how much you will be charged for each service, you will receive this at least one month before we start charging you that amount.

The schedule will tell you if the service charge is eligible to be covered by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit. If this applies to you and it isn’t covered by these benefits, you will need to arrange to pay this to us yourself.

Some tenants who pay ‘Affordable Rent’, at 80% of the market rent, will have their service charges included with their rent, so when we decrease or increase the rent by a percentage, the total rent inclusive of service charges will decrease or increase in line with it.

If you would like more information about service charges, please contact us.