Rent and service charges

What’s included in your rent:

The rent you pay for your home covers the costs of managing the building/property, including maintaining, repairing and improving the properties we own.

Service charges:

Service charges differ depending upon the services you receive and include both personal and communal charges. Personal charges are not eligible for housing benefit, so you must always pay this sum yourself even if you claim benefit.

To find out about service charge increases, and how we support residents, read our service charge frequently asked questions.

Service charges included with your rent may include:

• Communal cleaning
• Communal lighting
• Communal water
• Door entry system
• Fire alarm system
• Grounds maintenance
• TV aerial (if there is a communal system)
• Sinking fund (if you are a leaseholder and your lease allows for this).

A comprehensive list of what may be included in your service charges and an explanation of what each item is can be found in our Guide to Service Charges.

If you are you experiencing difficulties in paying your rent or service charge, please contact our Service Hub staff to discuss your situation on 0207 922 5300.

Rent increases and financial support:

We typically increase our rents in April each year. We’ll write to tell you at least one calendar month before any planned increase. Rents are set by a government-determined formula, and we follow this formula to review your rent each year.

In order to access our welfare benefits advice service, undertake an income expenditure review or apply to C&C’s financial support fund, please contact your local Service Officer or the Service Hub on 0207 922 5300. Please note that any information shared with us will be in the strictest confidence.

Rent statements:

We will send you quarterly rent statements in April, July, October and January. You should check it to make sure all your rent payments are shown. If your statement appears incorrect or if you have any questions, please contact our Income Team on 0207 922 5300.

Find out more about how to pay your rent.

Rent for 2024/25:

There are 53 Mondays in the 2024/25 financial year, which runs from Monday, 1 April 2024, until Sunday, 6 April 2025, with the last Monday, being 31 March 2025.

This happens every five or six years, because there are 365 days in a year or 366 in a leap year. This breaks down to 52 weeks in a year plus 1 day, or in a leap year 52 weeks plus 2 days. These extra days then accumulate to add an extra week to the year.

This means:

• If you pay your rent monthly, we will use the following calculation: new weekly rent charge multiplied by 53 then divided by 12.
• Universal Credit (UC) will not cover the 53rd Monday. So, all UC customers who receive the housing element will need to cover this charge.
• Housing Benefit covers all chargeable weeks so are not affected.
• You can pay this over the course of the year, and in most cases is a few £ a week, for example, weekly rent of £200 divided by 53 = £3.77 per week or if you want to pay monthly = £200 divided by 12 = £16.67

Those who have older tenancies which include rent free weeks are not affected.