Service charges

If you're a leaseholder or shared owner of an L&Q-owned property, your home is likely covered by L&Q’s group insurance policy.

From April 2025, the annual building insurance premium for your home under this policy will rise to £515.00

By insuring our properties collectively under a single policy, we're still able to deliver lower premiums than we would otherwise be able to obtain by insuring each building individually.

Therefore, there is a cost-benefit to our homeowners by continuing to be insured under L&Q’s policy.

Why have premiums increased?

The insurance company calculate your premium based on a number of factors and this can be a complicated process.

We provide the insurer with information about our housing stock, which includes information such as the type and age of our buildings, their location, the cost of rebuilding them and the value of any claims that have been made.

Using this information, the insurer will assess what they see as the risks associated with L&Q’s overall housing portfolio and attach what they see as an appropriate insurance rate, which they then apply to the buildings sum insured (total rebuild value of all homes) to calculate your premium.

Because the rebuild value of your home continues to rise due to the effects of house rebuilding cost inflation, the premiums also rise annually even when the rate charged by the insurer remains the same.

The high inflation environment we have seen in recent years has led to substantial increases in house rebuilding cost inflation.

The inflation related increase in 2021 was 9% and in 2022 it was over 19%.

In addition to this, the building safety crisis which developed following the Grenfell Tower tragedy has led to large increases in property insurance premiums across the entire insurance market. This is because insurance companies have less confidence in the building regulatory regime.

We've installed building monitoring equipment into many of our blocks.

This equipment will enable proactive, early, detection of faults with facilities, including fire alarms and communal heating systems.

This will benefit residents as the system aims to identify faults as soon as they occur and notify us, to make the process more efficient.

As a result, there is a small servicing cost included in your service charges.

Please note that we carried out the installation of the equipment at no cost to you.

What is remote monitoring?

Remote monitoring is the use of smart technology to enable us to monitor buildings from a central location.

The central location will be managed by us and will alert us if an issue has occurred in your building.

What am I being charged for?

The charges will be for the maintenance of the equipment that allows your building to be monitored.

There are charges for the maintenance of the smart equipment and network equipment that allow us to maintain a constant connection.

Facilities we monitor may include:

• fire alarms
• communal heating system
• communal hot water
• communal cold water
• door entry system
• gates
• emergency call system
• wastewater pumps
• water supply booster pumps
• CCTV system
• AOVs
• sprinkler system
• communal ventilation
• emergency lighting system

Does this charge cover the repair of the equipment?

No, the purpose of this charge is to maintain the smart technology in place that allows the equipment to be constantly monitored.

If the equipment is damaged or no longer working, we will be able to act fast to have this repaired.

The repair of equipment will be charged elsewhere in the service charge.

How will this affect me?

This will lead to reduced downtime for your building services. We will also be able to notify you in the case of any issues.

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

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

The building safety measures that fall within the new building safety costs are detailed 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 are not those associated with remediating building defects, as leaseholders are protected from most of those costs. However, the Building Safety Act 2022 set out new duties, for building owners such as L&Q, which came into force in 2023.

Your local authority is responsible for the regular collection of household waste from your estate. However, they will not collect items that are fly-tipped, or otherwise not stored correctly in the appropriate bins.

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

We have had to do this on occasions in previous years. Hence, 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 from which everyone benefits.

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

Caretakers provide various services to your building and/or estate.

Specific information can be found on the Caretaker’s Rota which you will find displayed on the communal notice boards.

These services will be carried out on a weekly or fortnightly schedule with the aim to clean and carry out grounds maintenance whilst monitoring these contracts in order to offer the best value for money to residents.

Some examples of the work they carry out include dealing with minor repairs, litter picking, replacing faulty lightbulbs, fitting locks, checking health and safety risks, reporting fly-tipped rubbish and inspecting internal communal areas.

Caretakers will also regularly report to management as well as participate in meetings with residents, assist contractors and liaise with local authorities such as the police or the council.

Costs for 2025/26 are set in accordance with the number of hours per month spent by caretakers at each block for their internal and external duties.

Full list of caretaker duties carried out:

• ensuring the scheme looks clean and tidy and is secure and safe for residents and their visitors. Spot clean as required
• regularly litter pick the external green areas, hard surfaces and car park areas, also sweeping pavements and kerbs
• litter pick, empty litter bins, keep the waste bin rooms clean and routinely wash bin floor and walls as required and rotate bins as needed
• reporting fly-tipped or discarded bulk waste in the communal areas and moving where possible to a safe area for collection
• regularly inspect all internal communal areas and carry out minor repairs as necessary. This could include:

• checking smoke and fire appliances
• monitoring and reporting all risks to health and safety
• adjusting and tightening door closures and hinges, checking fire doors shut correctly and adjusting where possible, and replacing door stops
• check, adjust and repairs door and window furniture 
• replacement of faulty light bulbs or tubes
• repair and fit replacement locks
• replacement of missing or incorrect signage
• carry out visual inspections reporting problems that need further attention
• check all communal windows are closed
• check the operation of electric gates to car parks
• check the fire drop key system operates
• check and report accordingly the condition of all intake cupboards and communal areas
• remove graffiti
• report all antisocial behaviour to Neighbourhood Housing Leads, Police, and relevant stakeholders

If your home benefits from the services of a scheduled caretaking service, you may see two lines for this on your service charge breakdown.

There may be a caretaking charge, set at ‘Scheme’ or ‘Estate’ level on your statement, to represent the cost of external works provided by your caretaking team.

If you live in a flat or maisonette, you may also see a charge at ‘Block’ level on your statement for the services to the internal areas of your building.

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

The cost is calculated depending on the building measurements and the scope 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)
• replenish soap, hand towels and toilet rolls (Sheltered / Supported housing
• cleaning guest rooms after use (Sheltered / Supported housing)

Please note that the above are examples of tasks which could be carried out depending on the requirements of each specific block.

For further clarification of tasks completed within your block and their frequency, please contact your Neighbourhood Housing Lead who will be able to clarify.

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

There is a heating plant which serves all properties within the building which we are required to maintain. As a result, the costs related to the maintenance and servicing of this system are rechargeable in line with the terms of your lease.

If you are a homeowner, please be assured that 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 as provided by the Building Services team and added a default reactive cost to cover any unscheduled maintenance work that may be required throughout the year.

The contracts cover any planned preventative maintenance provisions, having been agreed across our stock and fully analysed for value for money and quality by our procurement.

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 to ensure that the estimate we have set is closer in line with the actual expenditure incurred for providing this service in previous years.

Please bear in mind, 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 external 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 contains 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 consumption used at a communal level will be included in this service charge and may also include the water usage required for providing the services to the communal areas of your estate.

This includes but is not limited to the water utilised by the gardeners, cleaners and caretakers, providing your home is subject to these communal services.

This charge does not relate to any personal water usage or any water provided within your home and only relates to the water supplied in the communal areas.

As part of building compliance, we need to service and maintain dry riser systems that serve our properties.

If your block benefits from 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 comply with health and safety legislation, we're obliged to carry out testing of all electrical intake points into your building.

As we are responsible for providing a safe supply of electricity, please be advised it is a mandatory check we are required to carry out for all multi-occupancy low, medium and high-rise buildings.

Regular testing of a building’s wiring structure and maintenance is mandatory by law under The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and IET Wiring Regulations BS 7671:2008.

The frequency of testing required for compliance varies between environments, determined by several factors like the use, operation and other external influences affecting the installation.

As part of building compliance, 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 flick tests.

This does not cover any remedial work. We have calculated these costs by taking the basic service contract value as provided by the Building Services team, adding VAT, plus any contractual uplifts.

Maintenance

This relates to remedial works found on scheduled service visits, like lamp changes and battery replacement.

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.

Following the rise in the costs of living, please note your energy charges may have increased over the last few years.

This is a result of the wholesale energy prices (what our providers pay for electricity and gas) having reached an all-time high.

Wholesale energy prices have indeed 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 have seen our costs increase with recent market movements, we have amended our energy service charges to reflect this and to align them with actual costs anticipated for the year.

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

Any queries relating to L&Q Energy issues, 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 may 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 site.

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

The fall arrest servicing and maintenance service covers the cost of the routine servicing and maintenance of the fall arrest system which is installed on the roof of your building as a health and safety measure for any contractors to use when carrying out repair works or inspections.

Our contractors carry out inspections every 6 or 12 months, depending on the type of system installed, checking all the components involved to ensure that the systems are fully operational and safe to use.

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

To comply with safety standards, pull or tension tests are carried out with specialist apparatus to ensure that the components are still in good order.

Where failures are recorded, remedial works are followed up to bring the systems back in service.

As part of building compliance, we need to service and maintain fire extinguishers and fire blankets in the communal areas of our buildings.

If your block benefits from 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 elements related to fire protection as above, aiming 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 relates to the fixed aspect of the alarm and AOV. This also covers the scheduled servicing, quarterly inspection and annual inspection.

This does not cover any remedial work. We calculate these costs using the basic service contract value as provided by our Building Services team, adding VAT, plus any contractual uplifts.

Maintenance

This relates to remedial works found 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 is subject to periodic assessment for fire risk, we've included a small charge as a contribution towards the cost of this statutory service.

What is a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA)?

A suitable and sufficient review undertaken of a building to assess it for fire risk, and where necessary, provide recommendations to make it safer if required.

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

Geographical Information System (GIS) maps were used, taking information from satellite images of where you live and 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 procuring 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 request 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 assistance from time to time.

The role will be carried out by a Scheme Assistant who will ensure the weekly health and safety of 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 assistance to understand and comply with the tenancy conditions
• assistance in sustaining all aspects of the tenancy
• signposting and accessing support from other services, for example, budgeting support, assistance with debt management from voluntary agencies, accessing support to assist 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
• assistance in claiming and managing housing benefit application
• advice and assistance on using equipment within the property
• advice and assistance regarding security of the tenants’ home
• monitoring and signposting for social services care services 
• arranging repairs to communal areas, including fixtures and fittings
• information and advice to tenants relating to use of communal areas, CCTV

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

The service charge relates to the lift safety inspections carried out by L&Q’s insurers on all passenger lifts twice a year.

Please note, this is a statuary requirement to ensure our lifts comply with current safety regulations and 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 a mandatory service which combines both a visual and functional inspection carried out on a regular basis to ensure the lifts ongoing, safe and reliable operation.

The maintenance works relate to any remedial works that are found on scheduled service visits, including any adjustments required 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 to ensure that the estimate we have set is closer in line with the actual expenditure incurred 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 ensure the best standard of service possible. For example, our centralised Revenue and Housing service.

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 instances 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 an L&Q property where some or all services are provided by a third-party management company rather than directly by our staff, 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.

The Managing Agent Costs heading represents costs within the managing agent’s budget that are ineligible to be recharged to non-homeowners, such as buildings insurance premiums or communal heating system maintenance costs.

The tenants’ share of these charges is covered by L&Q – we do not pass on additional amounts to homeowners.

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

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

They don't work to a rota, but will visit sites as requested by the Neighbourhood Housing Lead, usually following estate inspections.

The mobile teams carry out general caretaking duties, including minor repairs in communal areas or undertaking supplementary communal cleaning or grounds maintenance when needed.

We levy a small annual charge for the mobile service. All residents on our managed estates pay this charge. Even if you live in a house, you may pay for mobile caretaking if we provide external services to the communal areas of the street or estate where you live.

You can request a visit from the mobile team via your Neighbourhood Housing Lead.

Play equipment relates to 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 ensure that the playgrounds remain safe.

We employ a contractor to regularly undertake 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 an estate facility 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, whether you choose to use it or not.

Where we include replacement costs within your service charge, these relate to the recently installed assets like communal flooring or a new lift component, door entry panel or fire equipment.

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

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 enable homeowners to spread the cost of major works, like cyclical decorations and roof replacement over a number of years.

Sinking fund contributions are normally calculated when a property is built. The developer provided a cost list of all component parts of the building, like windows, roof, door entry system, fire safety system and approximate life expectancy 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 expectancy were provided by our Asset Strategy team.

A discount may 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, like cyclical decorations.

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

All contributions are held by us in a central bank account and accounted for separately. Therefore, if we were to financially collapse, the sinking fund monies held for each scheme would be easily traceable and passed on to the new freeholders.

Please be aware this is not likely to occur, but you know that there is a safety net in place for your funds.

Interest is earned on the monies that are held and is added to the sinking fund balance every year we pay interest aligned to prevailing 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 our cost of statutory 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.

As part of building compliance, we need to service and maintain sprinkler and wet riser systems that serve our properties.

If your block benefits from one of these systems, 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'.