Service charge explanations for tenants

Costs for maintaining and servicing of communal door entry or security equipment.

Costs for managing the contractors who provide services for us in any shared areas

Costs for inspection of areas within building that may contain asbestos material to assess condition and risk level.

Costs for maintaining and servicing of automated gates, barriers and doors within estate, car parks and communal areas.

Costs for waste collection or rubbish sorting where the local authority refuses to remove domestic recycled waste due to bin containing items that are not supposed to be there.

Costs for cleaning shared areas, which may include washing stairs and floors, sweeping and dusting indoor shared areas, cleaning windows (usually only the internal surfaces of common area windows) and the cost of cleaning materials. Other costs connected to keeping the block clean may also appear here, for example where external surfaces of all windows are cleaned.

Costs associated with keeping your building safe and in compliance with the Building Safety Act 2022. This includes the building safety registration fee for higher-risk buildings, and the building safety report which is a document that summarises safety information for high-rise buildings. This also includes fees for a building assessment, including the Regulator's investigation, and structural survey reports on the condition and integrity of the building.

Costs for removal of fly tipping or dumped bulky items.

Costs for management and maintenance of car park areas on the estate, such as cleaning, line marking, and enforcing rules.

Costs for catering services in certain sheltered and supported housing developments, where there is more than a shared kitchen.

Costs for maintaining and servicing CCTV cameras and monitoring systems in communal areas.

Costs for servicing, maintenance and planned replacement of commercial catering equipment and ventilation.

Costs for providing laundry rooms, shared kitchens, and common rooms, including any white goods, equipment and furniture used within these areas.

Costs for any gas supplied to shared areas.

Costs for servicing, maintenance and planned replacement of communal laundry equipment.

Costs for council tax payments for our local offices in schemes.

A contribution towards the costs of replacing communal assets, that’s spread over a number of years as a depreciating charge, rather than paid for in full.

Costs for servicing, maintenance and planned replacement of equipment including baths, bath hoists, stair lifts, through floor lifts and track hoists.

Cost of Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) testing, carried out every five years.

Costs for testing and servicing of emergency lighting in communal areas.

Costs for managing agents' fees for providing services to blocks and/or estate. This will occur when A2Dominion is not the freeholder, or where the estate is shared with other blocks and the area is the responsibility of another party to manage.

Costs for testing and servicing fire systems and equipment in blocks, such as fire alarms, smoke vents, sprinklers, fire extinguishers, and lightning protection, as well as carrying out fire safety inspections.

Costs for heating and hot water to individual flats.

Costs for upkeep of the outside areas of estates, such as gardening, mowing grassed areas and litter picking. Other costs to maintain the estate may also be included, such as the cost of dealing with abandoned vehicles.

Costs for planned programme of gutter clearances, as well as reactive works on communal guttering.

Costs for legal services incurred in the management of service charges, for example legal representation at service charge tribunal.

Costs for maintaining and servicing any leisure facilities on the estate, such as gyms or swimming pools.

Cost for lighting for estates and blocks, and on estate roads. It also includes the cost for providing lighting in shared areas and the electricity costs of running all electrical equipment, such as lifts.

Costs for electricity and lighting to individual flats.

Costs for contractors to visit or patrol estates or blocks. This service is mainly used outside office hours at estates where residents have told us extra support and resources are needed to deal with issues such as anti-social behaviour.

Costs for employing caretakers, handypersons, cleaners, concierges, residential managers, nighttime cover, intensive housing managers or any other staff based at the estate, block or scheme.

Costs for hiring any large bins from the local council, or other costs associated with the removal of normal household waste from flats within blocks or on estates.

Costs for servicing and maintenance of passenger lifts.

Costs for eradication of pests from communal areas which include planned or responsive requirements.

Costs for inspecting play equipment in shared areas.

Costs for inspecting and testing of equipment including safe wires, anchor bolts and cradles.

Costs for emptying and removing waste from cess pits, septic tanks and pumping stations.

A fund you pay into that goes towards major work that may be needed, such as redecorating the building, replacing the lift, windows or roof.

Cost of telephone or internet provision and costs in communal areas only, including emergency phone lines in lifts.

Cost of tree surveys to identify, risk assess and prioritise work required.

Costs for any shared TV, digital, cable, or satellite system installed for the estate or block. This is separate to any fees residents pay to providers for subscriptions to individual services.

Costs for inspecting and servicing mechanical ventilation, including domestic systems, shared extractor fan, and heat recovery and air conditioning systems.

Costs for servicing of warden call systems.

Costs for water supplied to communal areas and used by the landlord for cleaning and washing shared areas at the estate or block.

Costs for Legionella testing and monitoring, and risk assessments of water systems.

Costs for servicing water pumps, sump pump systems, sewage plants and pumps, and surface water pumps.

Costs for water supply and drainage to individual flats.