Service charge and accounts
Service charge
The Service Charge represents the cost of services provided at Canary Riverside for the benefit of Leaseholders (residential and commercial). The percentage payable by each Leaseholder is set out in their Lease, and is calculated according to the area demised as a percentage of the total demised areas.
The Service Charge year runs from 1st April to 31st March. Leaseholders are invoiced bi-annually in advance, and equal payments are due on the 1st April and 1st October of each year.
The Service Charge includes the costs of providing:
Water supply - hot and cold
Cooling - the running of the chillers supplying cooled air
Gas supply to gas hobs
to all apartments. These are costs that in most estates are billed separately (ie, in addition to the flat’s service charge).
It also includes:
Concierges and 24 hour security staff
Lift maintenance
Estate cleaners and waste management
Communal lighting
Landscape gardening
Mechanical and electrical maintenance
Reserves (provision for replacement of major items)
The design of Canary Riverside - with 325 flats within five residential buildings (including Circus), each with their own separate entrances and concierge service, a total of 16 lifts (average of 1 lift per 20 flats), a car park with public access, 24 hour estate security and multiple estate entrance points - did not have cost efficiency in mind! Ditto the hot water system - a ‘non-return’ system whereby the hot water leaves the boiler and is kept at c.60C by way of electrical tape (‘trace heating’).
Parkgate Aspen has introduced various cost efficiencies, eg, in respect of communal and car park lighting, and is proposing works to the hot water system so that it operates as a ‘return-flow’ which does not require trace heating.
If Canary Riverside was being built today it most probably would be a large tower with c.1,000 apartments (ie, similar to the Landmark Pinnacle), with the associated economies of scale.
A detailed budget is provided to Leaseholders together with their service charge demand. The 2025/26 service charge budget together with guidance notes can be found here, the 2024/25 pack here, the 2023/24 pack here and 2022/23’s here.
For lessees interested in how the apportionment of estate services across residential, car park and commercial tenants was determined please see the report produced by Gross Fine in 2004 here. The annex at the end of the report shows the apportionment percentages across the various tenants.
Annual Service Charge Accounts
Service charge accounts are produced annually and a copy is sent to each Leaseholder. Since the appointment of a section 24 manager at Canary Riverside the accounts have been produced within six months of the year-end to which they relate. Under CREM’s management the average time taken to produce the service charge accounts was in excess of 33 months.
A copy of the 2023/24 service charge accounts can be found here. Copies of previous years’ service charge accounts can be found here.
If there has been an overspend (against the estimated service charge budget) a balancing payment will become due for payment (payable within 14 days of the demand). In the event that expenditure was lower than the budgeted estimate upon which the Service Charge demands were base, a balancing credit will be applied to the Leaseholder's account, which will partially offset the next due payment on account.
The Lease sets out further information on the Service Charges. Leaseholders should check their own apartment’s Lease for confirmation of the percentage payable via the Service Charge.