How to pay
Your rent and other charges must be paid monthly in advance. You
should pay by Direct Debit but, it may be possible to pay directly
into the office, by post or in person, by special
arrangement.
If you are on Housing Benefit, you can arrange for this to be paid
directly to Shepherds Bush Housing Association (SBHA).
How charges are set
Rent levels
The percentage of your property which you do not own is rented to
you by SBHA under an assured tenancy. You pay rent to us on this
part. Arrangements for setting and reviewing your rent are given in
your lease.
Rents can only be increased once a year on 1 April. Your lease also
sets out the maximum rent increase we can charge. We are not
obliged to give you notice of a rent increase until the end of
March but will always try to give at least two weeks notice.
Other charges
The other charges you pay depend on what kind of shared owner you
are.
Traditional shared owners
If you have bought your home
in one of SBHA's direct managed schemes, you will pay a service
charge to us. The service charge pays for services and building
maintenance such as external and structural repairs, preventative
maintenance, cleaning of common areas,entry phones, fire alarm
maintenance, lifts, and building insurance.
DIYSO
If you bought a property on the open market under
DIYSO, you have full responsibility for all repairs and maintenance
on your property. The only payment you make to us on top of your
rent is a management fee, and building insurance if we are the
freeholder.
If you have bought a flat there may also be a service charge which
we collect and pass on to the management company responsible for
the property. Your lease sets out precisely what these additional
charges cover.
There are arrangements for setting and spending service charges in
our traditional shared ownership schemes. This section does not
apply to you if you bought under DIYSO.
Service costs
Under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 you are entitled
to be consulted on any repair, job or other service which will cost
more than £250 per flat.
Yearly service charge budget
Each April you will receive a budget of proposed expenditure of the
service charges for the following year.
If you wish to raise any issues or are unhappy about the charges,
we are happy to provide further information on how the costs are
calculated and to meet with you if that would be helpful.
Shortly after the end of the financial year in March, you will be
sent a summary of how that year's service charges were spent. If
the service charges collected during the year were not enough to
cover the amount spent, you will be charged for your share of the
extra amount. If we have collected more money than was needed, this
will be credited to your rent account.
Further information on the procedures is available from our Housing
Services office.
Or you can email Mina Barton, Management Officer:
mina.barton@sbhg.co.uk.