What is the average yearly service charge for a block of flats in London?
Service charges are a movable feast and may include a number of charges that you do not directly benefit from. As far as I know there is no “average” annual service charge as there are so many variables from block to block. Service charges are usually levied at a percentage of the total cost and estimated bills are issued. The actual charge may be higher or lower than the estimated bill at the end of the charging period. Your lease will contain the percentage of any service charges you may be liable for. You may find further information in the above by clicking on the following link: http://www.lease-advice.org Best wishes.
I don’t think it is easy to give an average. Service Charges on blocks of flats may include a variety of things. Mine includes amongst other things external maintenance (e.g. painting of outside areas, maintenance of gutters), communal garden maintenance, TV aerial issues and probs (i.e. when aerial stops working they get fixed), external lighting and buildings insurance. It doesn’t include the ground rent. Where I live there are lots of small blocks of flats and our service charge is for all of the blocks – therefore each block has a TV aerial. We each have our own external door, so communal internal areas do not exist. However, the majority of blocks of flats would have internal communal areas too, so I guess the service charge would include the maintenance, decoration and cleaning of those areas.
