News

Service charges cover the cost of providing services, such as grounds maintenance, door entry systems and communal electricity. 

Customers have told us they want clearer information about the costs they pay through their service charge. They also want us to get back to them more quickly when they have a query.

To help bring about these changes, we’ve set up a dedicated new team focused solely on managing service charge information and responding to enquiries.

Leaseholders and shared owners who pay a service charge will get their booklets between August and September, detailing their actual costs for 2023–2024.

Customers can expect to receive:

• more detailed explanations in their booklets if their service charge costs have increased from the estimate
• a response to any queries about their actual service charge within 20 working days.

Kate Gascoigne, A2Dominion’s Chief Customer Officer, said: “We know that some customers have been frustrated with the lack of detail about service charge costs received in the past. We also know that we have taken too long to respond to their service charge queries.  

“We apologise to customers if this has been the case and thank them for their feedback. We have listened and we will be seeking to continually improve this service.

“For this year, we have set up a new dedicated service charge team that will be focusing on helping provide clearer information about costs for customers and a faster response when they contact us with a query.  

“Whilst I hope these changes will improve the experience for our customers this year, we’ll still be asking for feedback so that we can seek to continually improve.”  

Cost increases at some buildings 

Whilst we make every effort to get service charge estimates right, sometimes things happen in the year that we can’t predict which affects the cost of providing services.  

At some developments, costs have been higher than we originally estimated. The main reasons for this relate to fly-tipping, rubbish and recycling being put in the wrong bins and costs for communal repairs.

Where this is the case, we are providing information to customers within their service charge booklets. We are also reassuring customers that we don’t make any profit from service charges; we simply recover the costs of providing the services in their buildings. 

More information about service charges is available on our website.