Each year leaseholders receive two demands. 
 
In January or February, you will receive an estimated service charge for the year. This is based on how much we spent the year before to provide the services which are covered by the charge. In October you will receive a demand for the actual costs incurred in the previous year. This may lead to an increase or a decrease in the charges.
 
Your lease says that you should pay your service charge within 28 days of the invoice being issued.  We know that it might be hard for some people to do this.  We will therefore make arrangements for people to pay their service charges in instalments. However, we expect all the service charge to be cleared by the end of March each year.
 
If payment is not received or where leaseholders fail to make payments, we can do a number of things to make sure that the debt is paid.

• If you have a mortgage we will go to your bank or building society to get them to pay the debt. This will increase the amount of money you owe on your mortgage and could put you into arrears and therefore put your home at risk.
• Take legal action to seek a court order against you for the debt.
• If all else fails take action to forfeit your lease, which means that the Council will repossess your home in order to collect the debt.