Leaseholder - Hounslow Homes

2012 – Small stepsYou may remember last year (October 2012), westreamlined service charge paperwork.As usual you received:• your certificate of actual annual servicecharges• your statement (showing starting balance,adjustment figure for the differencebetween estimated costs and the actualcosts shown in the certificate(s) of servicecosts and total payments by you)and for the first time, we also included:• any major works* bills that wereoutstanding at the financial year end.• covering letter with “at-a-glance” summary of your accountsfor Service Charges**, Major Works,Ground Rent and Building Insurance,a single balance showing how much youhave underpaid (i.e. a debit) or overpaid(a credit) on your combined accountsa detailed comparison, calculating thedifference between the estimated and theactual costs, showing the net differencebetween the two***.• calculation of the amount that you owedus, or we owed you, as at the end ofSeptember*****Major works in the context of leasehold management are either planned or unplanned works including cyclicalrepairs and redecoration, which cost an individual leaseholder more than £250**Service charges are the bills for services as defined by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987***That amount is shown as an adjustment to your statement of account at the year end and can either be a debit or acredit.****The statement includes charges and instalment payments for the previous year and the first half of the current year,to 30 SeptemberNext steps – 2013Although the process of simplifying the billing system described above involves major changes to thecomputer system that mean we cannot complete this until next year, we are able to bring in the firstthree elements towards simplification. From this year, we will:1. Include an estimate of any planned major works costs, and start collecting all these costsmonthly in advance.2. Reduce the number of separate headings in the breakdown of charges3. To simplify your pink statement, we plan to do away with the calculation comparing yourestimate to your certificate of actual costs because:• the key figure is the outstanding balance of your combined accounts• the calculation creates potential confusion in an already complex set of figures• you will have had all the information you need to make that calculation, should you want to (sokeep hold of your March estimate of charges)Planning for 2014In 2014, we will combine yourthree accounts – for Buildinginsurance and ground rent andthe annual service charge intoone single account. This willreduce our mailings to 2 per year- March for estimated costs andby September, the “actuals”.We are improving the way werecord communal repair work,included as a total figure in yourannual service charge estimateand certificate. Repair costs arethe most difficult to predict,as they are mostly repairs notplanned works. (We estimateyour costs on the basis of theaverage of the last 3 years ofactual costs). We want to beable to publish a breakdown ofthese costs, known as the ‘BlockRepairs Summary’ as part ofthe annual certificate of actualservice costs. We will keep youall informed of progress on thistargeted improvement.We also want to know whatyou think about introducingReserve Funds, to enable allleaseholders to plan theirpayments for major works ineasier instalments. See ourseparate article on page 3.