In addition to your rent, you may also pay a service charge. Your service charge will cover the cost of services that you receive.
Click here for a full list of services that could be covered by your service charge.
At the start of each year, we review expenditure from previous years and changes in contract prices to estimate how much it will cost to provide services for your home. We use this estimate to set service charges for the year ahead.
Fixed service charges are set at the start of the year. Regardless of how much is spent in the year, the charge does not change.
This means that if the cost of services and works required to maintain your home exceeds the service charge set at the start of the year, GreenSquare will cover the additional costs. If we spend less than we estimated at the beginning of the year, customers will not receive a refund.
As the name suggests, variable service charges can change.
If you pay a variable service charge, your payments will change if the actual cost of services differs from the estimate set at the start of the year.
We review our accounts at the end of each financial year to calculate the difference.
You will receive an annual service charge certificate in September/October which lists the services you have received and their associated costs.
If you are a tenant, your deficit or surplus balance will be carried forward to the start of the next rent year. For example, the 2019-20 year which ended on 31 March 2020 will be included in service charges for the 2020-21 year.
If you are a leaseholder or shared owner, your payments will be adjusted in September/October to account for the deficit or surplus balance.
We have recently changed the way that we administer shared owner accounts to make them easier to understand and to ensure we operate in line with the terms of our leases. Previously, we carried deficits and surpluses forward to the next rent year. This year, we have prepared shared ownership accounts to show a clear end of financial year balance.
