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If you’re one of our shared ownership, leaseholder or freeholder customers, you’ll have recently received your end of year service charge statement. Below, we answer some of your frequently asked questions about this statement and your service charges.
Shared ownership, leaseholder or freeholder customers pay a variable service charge for the services you receive, which relate to the communal areas and the maintenance of your estate or block.
Each financial year (for most customers this is from April to the following March), we set an estimate of what we think these costs will be. And at the end of the financial year, we let you know what the actual costs of delivering these services was in an end of year statement. This is produced within 6 months of the end of the financial year, so most customers receive this by the end of September each year.
We’ve recently finalised the April 2024 to March 2025 accounts. You’ll have recently received your letter which shows the actual charges against the estimate charges, and we’ll let you know if there’s a credit or debit on your account. If your account shows a debit adjustment, the actual costs were higher than the estimate and you owe us money. If your account is in credit, we owe you money as the actual costs were lower than the estimate costs.
If a debit balancing charge is applied, we’ll expect to have the balance repaid by the end of the current financial year (March 2026). If you pay by Direct Debit, and unless you already have an arrangement in place, we’ll amend your payments from the next available date to settle your account by March 2026. You’ll receive a separate written notification confirming these changes.
If a credit balancing charge is applied and you pay by Direct Debit, and have no other debts with us, we’ll automatically refund any credit over £50 to you by 31 October 2025. If the credit is less than £50 and we don’t hear from you, we’ll offset it against the new year payments from 1 April 2026. If you don’t pay by Direct Debit and would like a refund, please contact us on 0800 652 0898 or email your Income Recovery Officer at income.leasehold@vividhomes.co.uk, remembering to quote your tenancy reference number.
Watch our series of webinars on a range of topics for shared ownership, leaseholder and freeholder customers.