Service charges

Your service charge covers the cost of services provided to your scheme, neighbourhood and personal charges in relation to your home.

The charge is calculated annually based on the cost of services you receive for the previous year and estimated costs for the coming year.

Every type of service we can charge via service charges are listed in the table at the end of this document, with an explanation of what they cover. Not all of the services listed are necessarily provided where you live, so where you do not receive a service, it will not be included in your charge. You will only pay for the services you are provided with.

We always work to ensure the best value for money for customers through competitive tender processes for all suppliers. However, the economy has been challenging in recent years and as a result we continue to see increases in the costs of delivering essential services, such as building safety and compliance.

We have brought some services inhouse, such as grounds maintenance, cleaning and waste management, which means that we can better control costs than if we had continued to use external contractors. We have also reviewed data to capture the full and accurate costs of delivering services, which means some customers may see changes in their service charges.

If you have any concerns about your service charges or questions please get in touch.

You only pay for the services that are provided directly to your house or in the building and/or area that you live.

There may be rare circumstances where a neighbour pays a different amount. An example of this might be where you pay for the maintenance of a communal garden, but your neighbour has their own garden. Or in some cases, you might have different terms in your tenancy agreement around non-charge weeks. If you have any queries please get in touch.

If you receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, the majority of your service charges will be covered apart from individual charges. More information about individual charges is included in the table at the end of this document. If you’re unsure please contact our Money Advice Team on moneyadviceteam@onward.co.uk or by calling 0300 555 0600.

If you are worried about your service charges, please contact our Money Advice Team. We can offer support to help with your finances or support in helping you find employment, so please get in touch.

Our Onward Environmental team provides grounds maintenance, cleaning, window cleaning, and waste management service for most customers. Most internal communal areas are cleaned fortnightly, with some properties and older persons schemes being cleaned more frequently. Window cleaning takes places usually every two months or as stated in the property agreement.

Grounds maintenance visits take place every two weeks. Litter picks are carried out on all visits. Grass is cut during the growing season, except in cases of extreme wet weather, and hedge and shrub reduction works are carried out from November to February. Some grassed areas, for example meadows, may be cut less frequently.

For those customers that receive a service from Onward Environmental, we will send a newsletter which sets out the services that we provide and when you can expect to receive these. You can find out more by visiting onward.co.uk/services/environmental-services or giving us a call.

The table at the end of this document sets out the different service charges and explains what these cover. In response to customer feedback, we have broken service charges down into individual charges to make it clearer what you pay for.

We review service charges every year to ensure customers are charged fairly and accurately for the services they receive. As a result, in some cases, you might see that we have added a new charge which you have not been charged for before. This is where a new service has been added or when we have reviewed charges and found that you have not been paying for a service that you have been receiving from us.