The service charges and major works costs you pay contributes to the maintenance and repairs of our existing housing stock to ensure your home is a ‘decent standard’ and that it meets the requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022.
Service charges and the Leasehold Management fee are set and approved annually by the Council before the start of each financial year in April.
When we make recommendations for increases to charges and related fees, we will take into account the financial impact of an increase on tenants and leaseholders, but we will also consider the needs of the housing service to maintain, manage and improve our homes.
When making budgetary decisions, The Council has a duty to consult with those who are liable to pay council tax or non-domestic rates, as well as those who use or are likely to use services provided by the authority. The Council is also required to take into account their statutory public sector equality duty under the Equality Act (2010) and consider any relevant Equality Impact Assessments when formulating and agreeing proposals.
In December 2023, the Council gave authorisation to the Director of Housing to introduce associated service charges in respect of Building Safety Regulation requirements for Leasehold properties. A decision has been made to defer implementing any new charges relating to the Building Safety Regulation until April 2025. You will be given 28 days’ notice in writing of any new charges before they are implemented. All other charges have been billed as normal.
A public engagement exercise on the Council’s budget was conducted in Summer 2023 seeking residents’ views on how the Council should reduce spend in order to deliver a balanced budget. A further consultation exercise was conducted in Autumn 2023 and the final budget for 2024/25 was approved by full Council on 20 February 2024.
Why has my service charge increased?
Due to inflation pressures, Sandwell Council have had to increase service charges and related fees from April 2024.
The costs of staffing and the supplies to repair and maintain our properties have increased significantly.
The requirements of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 and Building Safety Regulations has meant that we need to review how we deliver our services to meet the required standards.
We need to improve how we address customer complaints, complete stock condition surveys to access the quality of our homes and where necessary, bring our properties up to a decent standard. We can’t achieve this unless we balance our budgets in terms of costs incurred and the income we collect from rent and service charges.
The cost of providing buildings insurance has increased significantly this year with both sums insured and premiums increasing. This increase, alongside that of communal electricity, is based on costs incurred by the Council from external providers. For these types of charges, we charge you the actual costs, as they are different to other services charges.
Where do I get help, I can’t afford this increase?
We know that this is difficult time for many of our customers and we want to ensure support is available.
Our Welfare Rights Team can give you free independent and impartial advice and support of all welfare benefits. If you need any advice, please contact 0121 569 3158.
For more information, please visit the Resilient Residents website.
If you are struggling to pay your service charge, please contact Home Ownership Services on 0121 569 5203 or email home_ownership@sandwell.gov.uk
To help our customers budget and to give you peace of mind that your service charge is paid on time, we ask customers to pay by direct debit. You can set up a direct debit online Paying Your Rent or by calling 0121 368 1166.
Useful contacts:
Sandwell Council
Home Ownership Services
Telephone: 0121 569 5203
Email: home_ownership@sandwell.gov.uk
Welfare Rights Team 0121 569 3158
Repairs Call Centre 0121 569 6000
Housing enquiries 0121 368 1166
Customer Feedback Team – ways of logging a complaint
Website: Sandwell Council Website
Email: customer_services@sandwell.gov.uk
Telephone: 0121 569 7867
By post: Customer Feedback Team, Sandwell Council, Roway Lane, Oldbury, B69 3ES.
Other organisations
Leasehold Advisory Service (Lease)
Telephone: 020 7832 2500
Email: info@lease-advice.org
Website: www.lease-advice.org
Age UK
Telephone: 0800 678 1602
Website: www.ageuk.org.uk
Local Government Ombudsman
By post: PO Box 4771, Coventry CV4 0EH
Website: www.lgo.org.uk/contact-us
Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Citizens Advice
Website: www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Telephone: 0800 144 8848
National Debt line - free advice and resources to help you deal with your debts.
Website: www.nationaldebtline.org
Telephone Advice line: 0808 808 4000