Rent

Much of the cost of providing your home is met from the amount you pay for it and Government grant. We make up the balance by borrowing money and you pay rent to help us meet the cost of this borrowing. Unless you own all your home, you have an assured tenancy and you pay rent to Landmark for that tenancy. We calculate the rent as a percentage of the original value of the part of the property you do not own. Typically, we use a figure of 4%.

For example, if the full value of your home is £60,000 and you buy a 50% share your rent will be 4% of £30,000, which is £1,200 per annum or £100 per month.

Your rent increases each year on 1st April as stipulated in your lease.

If you buy a bigger share of your home (see staircasing) the amount of rent you pay will fall proportionately. So using the above example, if you were to buy another 25% of your home, your rent would reduce to 4% of £15,000, which is £600 per annum or £50 per month. If you buy 100% of your home you will therefore pay no rent at all.

Service Charges

When your home was first built and each February before the beginning of the financial year we will estimate how much you need to pay towards the cost of services. These estimates are based on known future expenditure, past costs and our experience with other schemes.

The items covered by the service charge will vary from scheme to scheme. Before the start of the financial year, which runs from April to March, we will send you a budget of proposed expenditure broken down under the various service headings. If you have any queries about the proposal, you can raise them yourself or through a Residents Association. Your Housing Officer will be pleased to provide you with further information.

At the end of the financial year we compare the actual expenditure with the budget estimates. For schemes of five or more homes, the service charge accounts are externally audited and, usually in September, we send you a statement that shows whether the actual expenditure was greater or less than the budget. The statement will explain any significant differences between the estimated and actual expenditure.

You have statutory rights to query service charges and to request detailed information on how they are calculated. In cases where there is an unresolved dispute on service charges the matter can be referred to a leasehold valuation tribunal to decide the matter. Your Housing Officer will be happy to give you more information about this.

We have to build up a reserve of money to cover large items of expenditure and cyclical maintenance on your scheme (for example redecorating the common areas). We therefore collect a fixed amount from you which we keep in a 'sinking fund'. This is money held in a separate account that earns interest which is added to the sinking fund.