Service Charges

Service charges are payments by the homeowner to the landlord (L&Q) for the services we provide. These include maintenance and repairs to common parts, insurance of the building and, in some cases, provision of lifts, lighting, communal aerials, door entry systems, cleaning of common areas and grounds maintenance, etc. Usually the charges will also include the costs of management.

Service charges can vary from year to year; they can go up or down without any limit other than that they are reasonable. Details of what can (and cannot) be charged by the landlord and the proportion of the charge to be paid by the individual homeowner will all be set out in your lease.

Most modern leases allow for L&Q to collect service charges in advance, repaying any surplus or collecting any shortfall at the end of the year. We can only recover those costs, which are reasonable.

The continual cycle

Service charges operate on a cyclical basis of estimation and reconciliation of expenditure. The service charge year operates from 1 April to 31 March each year. We have six months to let you know the actual amount we spent.