Charges & Fees

Every property and estate is different but, in general, your service charge covers things like:

• communal cleaning
• external cleaning (litter picking, sweeping, communal gardens)
• landscaping in communal areas
• caretaking
• removing rubbish
• day-to-day repairs to communal areas
• repair contracts for door entry systems, shared TV aerials and lifts
• buildings insurance
• public liability insurance
• electricity in shared parts of the building
• window cleaning

You service charge will be based on how much we expect to spend maintaining your estate in the next year. We calculate this every January and will write to you to let you know how much your service charges will be for the upcoming April-March year.

Every year we will send you a copy of your service charge accounts once they have been audited.

If there is a managing agent on your estate or a landlord that owns the freehold, we will collect service charges on their behalf for administration purposes. However, we cannot directly influence the standard of service you receive from a third party managing agent or landlord.

Hightown uses Trust Funds (or Sinking Funds) to pay for any major maintenance to your building or estate in the future. Some money is taken out of your service charge each month to go into the Trust Fund.

This money cannot be paid back to you if you sell your home.

By using Trust Funds, we try to spread costs over time rather than presenting homeowners with a large bill when major works  are carried out. Trust Funds can pay for things like roof repairs, redecorating communal hallways.

 

Your management fee covers the administration costs we incur in managing your home. This includes things like the cost of employing our staff, managing trust funds, preparing and distributing accounts and managing contracts.

We review our fees every year and try to keep any increases in line with inflation.

Shared ownership rents:

If you are a shared owner you will pay a rent to Hightown to cover the share that you do not own. This is based on a percentage of the value of Hightown's share.

We increase on an annual basis in line with the Retail Price Index. We typically do this at the start of the financial year but you receive a letter in Feb/Mar to give you more details. If you pay by direct debit we will adjust your payment when the rent increases.

Ground rent

All homeowners who live in flats are responsible for paying a ground rent. Ground rents are fixed and the amount you have to pay will be stated in your lease.