How you can help make service charges lower
If we have to do extra work, you end up having to pay for it. We want our service charges to be reasonable, so we want you to help us cut down on unnecessary work and inefficiency.
Report vandalism/ criminal damage - It costs a lot to fix vandalism – and you’re footing the bill. If you see anyone damaging your block or vandalising your estate, report them to your Portfolio Manager and/or the police as soon as possible.
Use bins. Don't dump rubbish - Please use the right bins and bin stores for your household rubbish. If residents don’t dispose of rubbish properly, the council may refuse to collect it. This forces us to use contractors, which you will have to pay for.
Many councils dispose of big items (e.g., old furniture, fridges) for free. But if you dump it, we’ll have to remove it. And the cost will be added to your (and your neighbours’) service charges.
Tell us if our contractors are not doing their jobs - We employ contractors to do lots of our estate work (e.g. cleaning or grounds maintenance). We’re quite happy with the work they do but if you think that they’re not doing the job properly, please tell your Portfolio Manager. Feedback is always appreciated.
Tell your Portfolio Manager about broken lighting - If you spot a broken light in your block/estate, DON’T phone our repairs service. Tell your Portfolio Manager instead – they may be able to arrange for our cleaning contractors to do it (it may be in their contract to fix certain lights).
Give us all the right information - If you’re reporting a repair, please be as precise as possible when you’re describing the problem.
If we don’t fully understand the problem, we may waste money and time with the wrong response. For example, we might mistakenly decide that a non-urgent repair is an emergency repair (the most expensive response).
Ian Ogilvie,
Portfolio Team Manager, Circle Living
28/07/11 16:39