Breaking Down Your Rent
The Breaking Down Your Rent Project (Service Charges
De-pooling)
Have you ever wondered what your rent covers?
If so read on. At the moment your weekly rent includes not only the
basic rent for your home, but also the cost of other services that
we provide to your home or estate such as caretaking, repairs to
communal areas and grounds maintenance.
One of the promises we made in the Transfer
Offer Document was to fully separate out these Service Charges and
consult with tenants on this process. The consultation process
has now commenced and is being referred to as ‘Breaking Down Your
Rent’. We aim to make sure that you know exactly what
services you are paying for. The amount of the charge will be based
on the actual cost of providing the service to you.
This does not mean that you will pay
more – we are only showing you the breakdown.
Below are the answers to some frequently asked
questions on Breaking Down Your Rent.
What are service charges?
The weekly rent that you currently pay
includes a contribution to the cost of services which are
additional to those directly associated with occupying your
home. Examples of these services include caretaking and
grounds maintenance. These are known as ‘service
charges.’
At the moment the amount you pay towards these
services is not broken down or itemised on your rent account, with
the exception of the following,
1. Sheltered accommodation heating charges and
Amenity Charges
2. CCTV security and College Bank
concierge
3. Furnished accommodation
Why are we doing this?
We want to make things clearer. You will
be able to see how much you are paying for each of the services you
receive.
This will make RBH more accountable for the
services it provides as tenants will be better placed to assess
value for money. We want to improve services and you will be
able to help us achieve this.
It is also fairer as you will only pay for the
services which you receive.
How will it work?
All the services you receive have been
identified. These will be costed and applied individually to your
rent account.
Will this result in a rent
increase?
Nobody will see an increase in the total
weekly amount of rent payable as a result of this change in the
current financial year to 31st March 2013. In
future years the service charge will reflect the actual cost of the
services you receive.
Will Housing Benefits cover any new
charge?
Yes. Housing Benefits will cover the
costs of the service charges in full if you are currently entitled
to claim.
What will happen next?
You should have already received two
letters. The first letter went out on 18th May
2012 and the second letter went out on 11th June
2012. In the second letter you will have been provided with a
Customer Feedback form listing the services you receive and another
form for your comments so that you can feed back to us.
The final letter is due to be sent out some
time in August/September 2012 and this will show you how much you
pay towards each of the services you receive.
Breaking Down Your Rent (Service Charges
De-pooling) will be implemented from 1st November
2012.
Queries
If you have any further queries you can:
- contact your Neighbourhood Housing Officer
- fill in the comments form here
- e-mail: service.charges@rbh.org.uk
- complete the comments form attached to the 2nd
letter