Service charges

If you're a leaseholder or shared owner of a home managed by us, your home is likely to be covered by our group insurance policy.

From April 2025, the annual building insurance premium for your home under this policy will rise to £515.

By insuring all homes together under a single policy, we're still able to deliver lower premiums than we would otherwise be able to get by insuring each building individually. This means it’s more cost effective for homeowners to be insured under our policy.

We've installed building monitoring equipment into many of our blocks. This equipment will help us proactively identify faults with facilities, including fire alarms and communal heating systems.

This helps you as the system aims to identify faults as soon as they happen and let us know immediately.

We installed this equipment at no cost to you, but there is a small servicing cost included in your service charges to maintain these systems.

The building safety cost has been introduced because of new building safety measures specified by the Building Safety Act 2022.

These measures are needed on all buildings over 18 metres or five storeys in height.

The building safety measures that are covered within the new building safety costs are set out in the Landlord and Tenant Act. They are:

• applying for registration of a higher-risk building
• applying for a building assessment certificate
• displaying a building assessment certificate
• assessing building safety risks
• managing building safety risks
• preparing and revising a building safety case report
• notifying and providing the regulator with building safety case reports
• implementing a mandatory occurrence reporting system
• giving information to the regulator
• keeping data and documents required by the Building Safety Act
• giving info and docs to any person in accordance with the Building Safety Act
• complying with duties relating to residents’ engagement strategy
• establishing and operating a system for the investigation of building safety complaints
• making requests to enter the premises
• issuing contravention notices to a resident
• application to the county court costs
• costs incurred in connection with implementing the above requirements, including legal and other professional fees
• fees payable to the Building Safety Regulator and management costs

These costs aren't for fixing faults with the building, as leaseholders are protected from many of those costs. However, the Building Safety Act 2022 set out new responsibilities for building owners which came into force in 2023.

Your local authority is responsible for the regular collection of household rubbish from your estate. But they won’t collect items that are fly-tipped, or which aren’t stored correctly in the appropriate bins.

When this happens, as your landlord we will step in and arrange for a specialist to remove the dumped items.

We have had to do this on occasions in previous years. This is why we have included an estimated charge as part of your service charge schedule for 2025/26.

We recover the costs that we incur from residents as it is a service which benefits everyone.

Where we are able to identify the perpetrators, we will charge them individually for the cost of bulk rubbish removal. However, it’s not always possible to do this, so we have added this as a communal charge.

If you have a regular caretaking service, you may see two lines for this on your service charge breakdown.

There might be a caretaking (external) charge, set at ‘scheme’ or ‘estate’ level on your statement, to show the cost of outside works provided by your caretaking team.

If you live in a flat or maisonette, you might also see a charge at ‘block’ level on your statement for the services to areas inside your building.

You would have seen a separate line for caretakers’ cleaning supplies in previous statements. This cost has now been absorbed into the main caretaking headings within your service charge.

This is the cost for the cleaning of your block’s shared areas.

The cost is calculated depending on the building measurements and the level or frequency of the cleaning.

Examples of tasks:

• clean all entrance areas including glass, fixtures and fittings external letter boxes and porch areas
• dust or damp wipe handrails, balustrades, skirting, windowsills, appliances and other horizontal surfaces. Remove cobwebs from all areas
• spot clean gloss paintwork, walls, switches and sockets to remove impact marks
• clean accessible intake cupboards
• clean lift paying attention to mirror, control panel and runners (where applicable)
• vacuum where possible or sweep and then damp mop hard floors
• vacuum carpeted areas and entrance mats
• sweep light debris and disinfect bin areas
• window cleaning
• clean all communal rooms including lounges, bathrooms, toilets, laundry rooms and office (Sheltered / Supported housing)
• replenish soap, hand towels and toilet rolls (Sheltered / Supported housing)
• cleaning guest rooms after use (Sheltered / Supported housing)

For more information about which tasks are carried out in your block and how often, please contact your Neighbourhood Housing Lead.

The heating system serving your home is part of a shared system.

There is a heating plant which serves all homes in the building which we need to maintain. As a result, the costs of maintaining and servicing this system are rechargeable in line with the terms of your lease.

If you are a homeowner, you will never be charged for more than your home’s share of the communal heating system costs.

We have calculated these costs by taking the basic service contract value given to us by the Building Services team and added a default reactive cost to cover any unscheduled maintenance work that might be needed throughout the year.

The contracts cover any planned preventative maintenance work, which have been agreed across the homes we manage. Our procurement team have checked that this meets our standards and gives value for money.

In your 2025/26 estimate service charges, we have reviewed the default reactive cost, which covers any unplanned maintenance works. Sometimes this has been increased to make sure that the estimate we have set is closer in line with the actual cost of providing this service in previous years.

Due to an element of this service covering non-planned works, this service is a variable cost.

We have included an estimated cost for communal repairs in 2025/26 as it is a requirement of most legal documents that we recharge homeowners for their share of any repairs to the common parts of the building or estate.

Your lease indicates what your home’s share of the costs is, and it defines what the common parts of the building are.

Common parts will often include all outside features of a block, including flat windows and patio doors, so we may legally ask you for a contribution towards the upkeep of these.

If you own the freehold of your home, your freehold transfer agreement has a clause which says you need to contribute towards the cost of estate repairs that the estate landlord carries out.

This charge covers any communal water supply for your building or estate.

This means that any water used at a communal level will be included in this service charge and may also include the water needed for providing the services to the communal areas of your estate.

This includes but is not limited to the water used by the gardeners, cleaners and caretakers, if you have these communal services.

This charge does not relate to any personal water use or any water provided within your home.

To help keep you safe, we need to service and maintain dry riser systems, which allow firefighters to pump water to upper storeys in emergencies, in some of your homes.

If your block has a dry riser system, you'll see a service charge for this facility.

In previous years we included these costs within the headings of 'fire protection equipment servicing' and 'maintenance'.

To meet health and safety legislation, we have to carry out testing of all electrical intake points into your building.

You have always had to pay for the service, but in previous years we've chosen not to charge you. However, we now charge a fixed rate to all residents for this service.

The electrical testing is charged to your building whether or not there is a separate landlord's supply.

To help keep you safe, we need to service and maintain all emergency lighting for your building.

Servicing

This covers the scheduled servicing, including quarterly inspections, an annual inspection and emergency lighting tests.

This does not cover any repair work. We have calculated these costs by taking the basic service contract value given to us by the Building Services team and adding VAT.

Maintenance

This covers repair works carried out on scheduled service visits, like lamp changes and battery replacements.

It is also used for non-scheduled service visits raised by our Customer Service Centre or Neighbourhood Housing Leads. It is a variable cost as it reflects non-planned work.

As the cost of living has risen, your energy charges may have increased over the last few years. This is because the wholesale energy prices (that our providers pay for electricity and gas) have reached an all-time high.

Wholesale energy prices have fallen since the energy crisis hit back in late 2021 to 2022. This period however led to high energy prices and a higher cost of energy being procured.

As we’ve seen our costs increase with recent market movements, we’ve amended our energy service charges to reflect this and to align them with actual costs expected for the year.

While your energy costs may have seen a large increase over the last few years, this is lower than the increase seen in domestic energy nationally as we hire consultants to negotiate preferential tariffs with suppliers.

If you have any questions about L&Q Energy, please email us or contact our Energy Customer Service team on 0300 456 9996.

This heading is for the cost of telephone lines connected to equipment in your building or on your estate.

Equipment might include items like lifts, door entry systems and CCTV systems.

In previous years, the line charges were included under the main headings for these services on your statement.

Some estates have an office used for the management of the area.

Costs can include security, waste collection, pest control, internet connection and telephone lines, energy or water costs relating to the office used by caretakers as well as caretaking supplies.

Fall arrest systems protect people who are working at height from falling. If these are installed in your building to protect those carrying out repair work or inspections, they need to be serviced and maintained every six or 12 months, depending on the type of system.

This includes a visual inspection carried out first to identify all the faults on the components such as wear and tear, corrosion, slack in cable systems, loose fixings, deployed posts, damaged or vandalised equipment.

To meet safety standards, pull or tension tests are carried out with specialist equipment to make sure they are working.

To help keep you safe, we need to service and maintain fire extinguishers and fire blankets in the shared areas of our buildings.

If your block has extinguishers or blankets, you'll see a service charge for them.

In previous years, we included these costs within the headings of 'fire protection equipment servicing' and 'maintenance'.

Over the years, we've created new service charge headings for various different fire protection services as above, to make your statements clearer and more transparent.

You may still have headings under Fire Protection Equipment: these relate to the servicing and maintenance of fire alarms, smoke and heat detectors, and automatic opening ventilation systems.

Servicing

This covers the alarm and AOV (smoke ventilation). This also covers the scheduled servicing, quarterly inspection and annual inspection.

This does not cover any repair work. We calculate these costs using the basic service contract value as provided by our Building Services team and add VAT.

Maintenance

This covers repair works carried out on scheduled service visits, like battery replacement or detector replacements.

It is also used for non-scheduled service visits raised by our Customer Service Centre or Neighbourhood Housing Leads. It is a variable cost as it reflects non-planned work.

If your building needs to be regularly checked for fire risk, we've included a small charge as a contribution towards the cost of this vital service.

Costs for grounds maintenance are based on the size and needs of your estate, scheme or block.

We use Geographical Information System (GIS) maps, taking information from satellite images of where you live which show the areas of hard surface, vegetation and trees that will be maintained.

The maps are used to transparently show which areas will be maintained.

By securing large contracts which will be in place over a long period, we should receive more competitive rates than we would with an annual contract. This means we can offer residents better value for money.

Grounds maintenance normally includes the following:

• cutting and neatly edging all grass areas
• maintaining any beds, shrubbery or borders by removing weeds
• removing plants growing up the side of buildings
• cutting hedges
• sweeping hard surfaces

You can ask for a copy of the map from your estate from your Neighbourhood Housing Lead.

The digital maps calculate the size of each estate and show which areas are being maintained.

The intensive housing management service is in place at our supported living schemes for residents who live independently but who may need help from time to time.

The role will be carried out by a Scheme Assistant who will make weekly health and safety checks to the building alongside their other day-to-day duties.

The service provided by the Scheme Assistant will include (but will not be limited to):

• advice and help to understand and meet the tenancy conditions
• help in sustaining all aspects of the tenancy
• signposting and accessing support from other services, for example, budgeting support, help with debt management from voluntary agencies, accessing support to help with alcohol or substance related matters
• provision of pendants for more frail residents
• testing and maintenance of the pull cord telecare system
• increased inspections and maintenance of the building, including health and safety issues, to address increased wear and tear to the property and facilities
• help in claiming and managing housing benefit application
• advice and help on using equipment within the home
• advice and help regarding security of the resident's home
• monitoring and signposting for social services care services 
• arranging repairs to communal areas, including fixtures and fittings
• information and advice to residents about the use of communal areas and CCTV

The lift insurance service cost is an annual fixed charge of £12.00 per resident.

The service charge covers the lift safety inspections carried out by our insurers on all passenger lifts twice a year.

We legally have to carry out these inspections for health and safety reasons. This will be recharged to all residents who have a lift in their block.

This service charge cost covers the contracted servicing and maintenance works for the passenger lifts in your block.

The scheduled servicing of the lifts is an important, mandatory, service which combines both a visual and functional inspection carried out on a regular basis to make sure lifts are safe and reliable.

The maintenance works include any repair works that are found on scheduled service visits, including any adjustments needed or faults identified.

This is also used for non-scheduled service visits raised by the Neighbourhood Housing Lead on their estate visits or any jobs raised to the call centre.

In your 2025/26 estimate service charges, we have reviewed the default reactive cost which covers any unplanned maintenance works and where applicable, this has been increased make sure that the estimate we have set is closer in line with the actual cost for providing this service in previous years.

As we are responsible for maintaining the communal areas on your estate, we have included a management fee in your service charges to cover this.

The management fee also contributes to the various departments and staff within the organisation who work to provide the best standard of service possible.

We have uplifted your management fees for 2025/26 by 3%.

In the past, we have attended Tribunal Cases in which our management fee structure was challenged, and in all cases it was found to be reasonable in line with the level of management time and resources being provided.

Details of our tribunal history can be found on the government website or the Leasehold Advisory website.

Further advise on management charges is also available from the Leasehold advisory service as well.

You may live in one of our homes where some or all services are provided by a third-party management company rather than directly by our colleagues, contractors, and suppliers.

When a separate management company provides services, you'll see a heading of managing agent costs on your service charge statement, along with the expected cost of their services for the year.

If you're a homeowner, you may see two lines on your statement – one for managing agent costs and the other for managing agent costs (homeowner only).

The second heading represents costs within the managing agent’s budget that can’t be recharged to non-homeowners, for example buildings insurance premiums or shared heating system maintenance costs. If you rent your home from us, a share of these charges is covered by us. We do not pass on additional amounts to homeowners.

We've been speaking to managing agents to make sure the level of your service charge is as accurate as possible, but unfortunately some increases in managing agent costs will be inevitable.

We have several teams of multi-skilled caretakers who provide a mobile service across our estates.

They don't work to a rota but will visit sites when asked to by the Neighbourhood Lead, usually after estate inspections.

The mobile teams carry out general caretaking duties. This may include carrying out minor repairs in shared areas or undertaking extra communal cleaning or grounds maintenance when needed.

We charge a small amount every year for the mobile service. All residents on our managed estates pay this charge. Even if you live in a house, you could pay for mobile caretaking if we provide outside services to the shared areas of the street or estate where you live.

You can ask for a visit from the mobile team through your Neighbourhood Lead.

Play equipment servicing includes the maintenance, repair and servicing of play equipment on your estate.

On estates where we provide a playground with equipment, we have a duty to make the playgrounds remain safe.

We employ a contractor to make regular health and safety inspections and carry out any necessary repairs, servicing or maintenance.

Why should I pay for the play equipment if I do not use it?

If something on your estate is available to you but you do not make use of it, you still have an obligation to pay the service charge cost under the terms of your lease, tenancy agreement or freehold transfer agreement.

Where we include replacement costs within your service charge, these cover anything that has been recently installed, like communal flooring or a new lift part, door entry panel or fire equipment.

We have split the installation cost equally over the life expectancy of the object.

By using this method of charging over time we spread the cost over several years making this more affordable for our residents.

The purpose of a sinking fund is to allow homeowners to spread the cost of major works such as regular redecoration and roof replacements over several years.

Sinking fund contributions are normally calculated when a property is built. The developer provided a cost list of the parts that make up the building (such as windows, roof, door entry system and fire safety system) and the rough life expectancies for these.

We work out contributions by dividing the total replacement cost of each item by its life expectancy.

In some instances, on newer developments, the developer provided a list of the component parts of the building and estimated replacement costs and life expectancies were given by our Asset Strategy team.

A discount might have been applied to contributions. However, when any major works are carried out, the full cost of the work will be due from residents.

Sinking funds are long-term plans to enable homeowners to spread the cost of replacing components when they reach the end of their life and major works such as regular decorating.

Sinking funds are not intended to be used for paying for repairs/maintenance carried out during the year.

All contributions are held by L&Q in a central bank account and accounted for separately. This means if L&Q were to financially collapse, the sinking fund held for each scheme would be easily traceable and passed on to the new freeholders. This is very unlikely to happen, but there it’s important that you know is a safety net in place for your funds if it did.

Interest earned on the funds that are held is added to the sinking fund balance every year/ L&Q pays interest aligned to the Bank of England rates.

An annualised rate is calculated based on the changes during the financial year. The calculated interest, net of income tax is added to sinking fund balances after the end of the financial year.

Like electrical testing, this is a fixed rate service charge to cover the cost of carrying out necessary testing of shared water supplies and storage tanks.

Water testing is another health and safety requirement that we carry out to detect and eliminate issues such as legionella.

To help keep you safe, we need to service and maintain sprinkler and wet riser systems, which contain water ready to be used by firefighters in an emergency, in our buildings.

If your block has one of these systems, you'll see a service charge for this.

In previous years we included these costs within the headings of 'fire protection equipment servicing' and 'maintenance'.