Service charge repair costs management overview
Without exception, landlords are always responsible for maintaining the common parts of a building, such as entrance halls, communal stairways and shared kitchens. In accordance with the terms of a tenancy or leasehold agreement, the costs incurred in maintaining these areas are typically passed back to the tenant or leaseholder in the form of service charges. A separate entry on their itemised service charge statement will likely cover routine repairs, which represents the occupiers share of the cost of undertaking these repairs. The charge may include minor repairs to, say, the door entry system, stairwell and corridor lighting, shared kitchen appliances and laundry facilities, indeed anything classified as day to day repairs, including regular 'cyclical' work such as repainting. Of course, a landlord's buildings insurance may cover all or part of the cost of some minor repairs (particularly if the damage is caused by an accident), but for any exclusions, each tenant and leaseholder usually has to pay a share of the total cost. A landlord is also responsible for maintaining the structure and exterior of the whole building, although these aspects are classified as major repair works, such as to the roof, building structure, windows or lift replacement, and would instead be covered by a sinking fund, contributed to by the landlord and leaseholders only.
All types of repair can be recorded and tracked through Civica Cx Housing, supporting the ongoing management and review of repair costs in preparation for the calculation of service charges, with the opportunity to filter the entries by the relevant calendar year and charging period. However, only those repair costs applicable to the overarching cost centres - each block or estate where multiple dwellings are located - would be considered i.e. any repairs conducted on an individual property would be recovered directly from the tenant or paid for by the landlord, as appropriate. Repairs can be compiled for service charge calculations in one of two ways: (1) The individual tasks within a work order are automatically transferred from a repair request once the work has been completed and a contractor invoice raised, or (2) A repair can be recorded manually.
In many cases, only a portion of the total cost of a repair will be recovered through service charges; hence it is possible to specify the service charge contribution value for each repair, irrespective of its origin - automatic or manual entry. Where the charge is amended from the original value, this is supported by an override reason and the name of the authorising end user.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of service charge repair costs management, including: