Rent and service charges
As a shared owner or leaseholder, you will be responsible for paying a service charge. A service charge is an amount an owner pays to cover the cost of providing communal or shared services, repairs and maintenance to a building and, if applicable, the neighbouring estate. It is paid in addition to the rent and/or mortgage. Your lease document sets out the service charges that you pay.
The amount that Soha pass on to owners is the exact cost Soha is charged by its suppliers and contractors for services, repairs and maintenance. The only addition to these costs is an administration fee.
If you are a shared owner and do not own the maximum available percentage in your property, you will have to pay rent. The rent amount is set in your lease. Rents will be reviewed annually and increases will be capped at the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 0.5%, or the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 1%, dependent on your lease.
What does a service charge cover?
Some examples of what might be included in a service charge are grounds maintenance, cleaning of communal areas and administration costs. If you live in a sheltered scheme, your service charge might include an amount to cover staff employed at the scheme or costs associated with maintaining communal areas, such as gardens, laundry rooms and communal lounges.
Please see My Statement Explained below for more details on your service charge statement.
How can I pay?
When do I pay?
You will receive a summary showing what you have been charged for each service and the actual amount you will be charged. Notification to advise how much you will pay is as follows:
- Leaseholders, shared owners, private owners and Extra Care/Retirement Living (shared owners) – service charge statements go out in July and charges change from August (service charge 1 April to 31 March)
- Ex-Bromford properties – service charge statements go out end of October/beginning of November and charges change from December (service charge year 1 October – 30 September)
I am having difficulty paying my service charge
If you are having difficulties managing your service charge or rent payments, please speak to one of our advisors in the Home Ownership Team as soon as possible. We can:
- Set up a direct debit to manage your payments
- Help fill in a budget planner to manage your finances
- Access free specialist advice to manage debt
Independent advice
The Money Helper (formerly the Money Advice Service) set up by government provides free, unbiased advice. You can find lots of useful information and advice on their website: www.moneyhelper.org.uk or by phoning them on 0500 500 5000.
Citizens Advice helps people resolve legal, money and other problems by providing free information and advice. Call our customer services team to find your nearest office or go to www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Check you are claiming all the benefits you’re entitled to at: www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators
My statement explained
The notice of upcoming service charges we send gives an indication of what you can expect to pay. Soha aims to be as accurate as it can, basing the estimate on the previous year and factoring in inflation rates, but these are only estimates.
At the end of the financial year we review the actual costs against the estimate we provided at the start of the year This might show a:
- Surplus – the estimate we gave you was too high and there is money left over or a
- Deficit – the estimate we gave you was too low and the services ended up costing more money than we collected from you.
We take any surpluses or deficits into account for the following year and adjust your service charge accordingly. If there is a surplus, we will reduce your service charges; if there is a deficit, we increase your service charges. Service Charges are variable, meaning they will change each year depending on the amount spent on your building, estate or scheme. This also means your estimate might increase some years and decrease others.
