2022/23 service charge statements

You can request a call back from our Rent and Service Charges team by emailing servicecharges@havebury.com. Please include your full name, address, your preferred method of contact and a brief description of your query. They will get back to you within five working days. Alternatively, you can call 0300 3300 900 (options 3,2,2 or extension 7315)

If you have a complaint about an element of service that you receive from us, for example, grounds maintenance or cleaning, you need to report this to our Neighbourhood and Estates team. You can:

• Log your issue on myHavebury. If you are not sure whether a piece of land belongs to us, or the Council, you can check this via the ‘grounds maintenance’ tile on the app.
• Call our team on 0300 300 900 (options 3 and 1)
• Email the team at myarea@havebury.com

If you have an outstanding repair, you can:

• Log the repair on myHavebury and book an appointment for a member of our team to come and fix the issue. Once made, you can also change the appointment date and time if you need to.
• Call our team on 0300 300 900 (option 2)
• Email the team at repairs@havebury.com 

If you think you’ll struggle to pay these charges, please get in touch with us. We have dedicated Income and Welfare & Benefits teams who can help you review your income and expenditure and offer advice to help you maximise your income. We also have a support fund, available to residents and shared owners, which we may be able to use to offer temporary relief from hardship. Please note that there is a criteria that needs to be met for access to this fund, and every case will be looked at on an individual basis. We’ll also signpost you to other organisations that may be able to help you.

You can contact the team by emailing myadvice@havebury.com or calling them on 0300 3300 900 (options 3,4 and 1 or extension 7305) 

If you are a leaseholder or shared owner in surplus, you can request a refund. To do this, please contact our Income team. They can be reached by calling 0300 3300 900 (options 3 and 2 or extension 7843) or by emailing myaccount@havebury.com

When you purchased your property, your solicitor would have been advised to make an apportionment adjustment. If you did not receive further information about this, we would recommend getting in touch with the solicitor you used to purchase your new home.

As a new resident, you will only have paid the service charges from the date your tenancy began, and your statement has been adjusted to reflect this. The amount on page one of the statement shows the actual amount you will have been charged/is due for the period of your tenancy that year. The second page shows the full annual cost relating to your home.

No, residents can’t claim a refund for any surplus amounts as these are added to the next year’s estimates.

All residents within a scheme/block will contribute towards the cost of the services provided. The difference between a homeowner and a resident is that some of the services provided are collected as part of the rent that residents pay.

You’re on a variable service charge, which means we:

• March – estimate your service charges for the year.
• March – September – gather all the actual service charges together and work out the final cost for the year. We then send you a statement detailing these costs at the end of September.

When we estimate the costs, we use information available to us at the time. For example, we set the charges for 2022-23 in 2021, when energy prices were much lower. The war in Ukraine increased the cost of gas and electricity, which caused everyone’s energy bills to rise. Unfortunately, this was not the case when we set your estimates in 2021. It’s also hard to anticipate additional ad hoc work, such as repairs.

Surplus – If we spend less than the estimate you’ve already paid.

Deficit – If we spend more than the estimate you’ve already paid.

Eligible service charges can be covered by housing benefit (HB) or universal credit (UC).

If there has been any change to an eligible charge, and your housing benefit is paid directly to us, you do not need to do anything, and we will notify the local authority on your behalf.

If you are on universal credit or have housing benefit paid to you, you’ll need to notify them of this change. You’ll need to do this in April 2024, when these charges take effect.

Ineligible service charges can’t be covered by HB or UC. If there is a change to this charge, you’ll need to pay for this yourself. If you think you’ll struggle with this, please get in touch with our Welfare and Benefits team who can offer you additional advice and support.

You can contact our Income team to discuss an affordable arrangement for you. They can do this once you’ve received your statement at the end of September. You can reach them by calling 0300 3300 900 (options 3 and 2 or extension 7843) or by emailing myaccount@havebury.com