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Rent and service charges support guide

Use this support guide to address problems with rent or service charges. It will help you with rent or charges your landlord has asked you to pay or that you have already paid.

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Rent and service charges

What is rent?

Rent is the regular payment you make to your landlord to live in a a property/home.

Residents are responsible for paying the rent. This applies regardless of whether you make the payment directly or indirectly from your bank account.

What is a service charge?

Service charges are payments you make for services your landlord provides.

There are 2 main types of service charges we see complaints about.

  1. Variable service charges

These are charges that change based on the costs incurred by your landlord. They can alter the charge depending on costs, the landlord must give you notice of the variation.

  1. Fixed service charges

These are charges set by the tenancy or lease and not based on the actual cost of the service provided. A fixed service charge is set by your landlord at the start of the lease or tenancy agreement.

Helpful Links

What to do if you have a problem with rent or charges

If you’re unhappy with how your landlord handled your rent or service charges, you should let it know.

Contact your landlord and ask:

  • if you need financial support or advice
  • what action you can take
  • for an explanation or breakdown if you are confused about your account or a charge

What your landlord should do

Your landlord should give you the information you need, such as rent statements or a cost breakdown.

If your landlord is asking you to pay a charge, it must be able to provide clear information and explain:

  • its power to claim the charge under the tenancy agreement or the lease
  • whether the charge is fixed or variable
  • what the charge is for when your landlord uses terms such as ‘maintenance’
  • the level of the cost
  • when the charges were increased or decreased and why

If you are having a problem with your rent account, your landlord should clearly set out:

  • what has gone wrong and when this happened
  • what you can do to put things right
  • where you can access financial support and advice

Your landlord should give you clear information about service charges and how to manage your rent payments when you sign your tenancy or buy your home. They should have the right documents and answer your questions clearly.

Service charge expectations

When to complain to your landlord

If you’re unhappy with how your landlord handled your request about rent or service charges, you can make a complaint.

In your complaint, you must clearly explain why you are complaining about the landlord’s actions, rather than about the rent or service charge itself.

Tell your landlord why you think their actions were wrong.

A formal complaint might be about:

  • being charged for a service you have not received
  • the standard or quality of a service you pay for
  • the landlord’s response to your request for information
  • the time your landlord took to respond to you
  • how the landlord told you about a charge or outstanding payment
  • how a fee has been worked out
  • a refund request

Landlord’s response to complaints 

Your landlord must reply to a complaint in line with its complaint procedure. Our Complaint Handling Code sets out the timescales a landlord must respond to a complaint:

Stage 1:

  • acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days of it being received
  • respond, in writing, within 10 working days of the date the complaint was acknowledged

Stage 2:

  • acknowledge a request to escalate the complaint within 5 working days of it being received
  • respond, in writing, within 20 working days of the escalation request being acknowledged

Bring your complaint to us for investigation

You can bring a complaint to us for investigation if your landlord does not resolve your issues through their complaint procedure.

Tell us:

  • what went wrong
  • what your landlord should do to put things right

We need your landlord's stage 2 response before we can help. This is their final answer to your complaint.

You can refer your complaint to us within 12 months of your landlord's stage 2 response. We’re unlikely to investigate complaints referred after this deadline unless there are good reasons for the delay.

Help if your landlord does not reply to your complaint

We can help you get a response from your landlord if they do not follow their complaint procedure or our Complaint Handling Code.

Send us a copy of the complaint to your landlord. This helps us understand if your landlord follows its complaint procedure.

The easiest way to do this is by using our helpful online form. The form will ask you about your complaint and you can upload supporting evidence.

Online complaint form

Complaints we cannot consider

We cannot decide whether you are paying too much in rent or service charges or reasonableness of a charge.

If you disagree with your level or an increase of rent or service charge, it’s unlikely we will be able to investigate your complaint.

alt=" "If your financial situation changes or you have issues paying your rent, you must speak to your landlord straight away. Your landlord should be able to support you to get financial help and signpost you to agencies that can help you.

Other organisations that may be able to help

You may also find these useful

What we can consider

This information is for residents who are thinking about bringing a complaint to us for investigation.

What we can consider (opens in a new tab)

Service charges

This key topic page explores our approach to investigating service charge complaints.

Service charges resource (opens in a new tab)