Service charge
So that you can continue to enjoy a safe, clean living environment, Swan maintain the buildings and look after the shared areas in and around your homes, as well as offering other necessary services. This means there are additional costs that residents are required to contribute to, called a service charge. Your Lease or Tenancy Agreement sets out the services we charge for, though we may consult with you if a new service is needed.
You will only be charged for the services provided. We do not make a profit on any of these services and will always ensure the charges are good value for money.
Some of the services we offer that are liable for a separate charge include:
- Caretaking
- Lift maintenance
- Safe door entry keys
- Gardening in communal areas
- Lighting in communal areas
- Communal TV aerials
- Concierge
- CCTV
Service charges are separate from your rent payments and are set out in your Tenancy Agreement.
Residents who receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit may have the service charge included in their benefit award. However, benefits will not cover charges for services to individual homes such as heating, hot water, lighting, or water charges. Payments for these services will need to be paid by yourself, either to a utility company or where we provide a service, directly to ourselves.
We review services charges yearly and we will write to you with any changes when this review has been completed. You have the right to see a summary of the costs that make up the bill, so if you would like to see the information used to calculate the charges please just ask a member of the team.
We calculate the service charge each year by looking at what services have been provided to each property / estate / block and how much these services have cost. We use this information to calculate the next years’ service charges. The estimates are prepared and sent to Leaseholders and Shared Owners in March and the new charges take effect on 1 April each year.
If you believe that you should not have to pay your service charge and if wish to dispute this with us, please read our Service Charge Dispute resolution document.
Leaseholders and Shared Owners can read our Service Charge Expenditure Booklet here.
Tenants (not Supported Housing Tenants) can read our Service Charge Tenant Booklet here.