Why Do I Need to Pay?
Ethical Maintenance has been appointed by owners at your property to provide the services owners have requested.
We’ve asked you to pay your share of the maintenance cost for the common areas in your community. This would have been agreed when you bought your home – check your Title Conditions for details.
If you’re unsure, either ask the solicitor who dealt with your house purchase or get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to send you a copy of your deeds.
Ethical Maintenance will be your property factor for the set period of time agreed by either your house builder, Residents’ Association or at a community meeting for your development.
How Much Does It Cost?
We work with you and your neighbours to ensure you meet your common maintenance responsibilities as per your Title Conditions.
Costs differ for every development, depending on what needs done. We help you find the best contractors for each job and you have full say in who is appointed – we never impose contractors on you.
As a not-for-profit organisation, you pay only for the service we provide – there are no shareholders. We keep administration costs low by calculating costs for the year then sending you one bill.
You’ll always have the option to spread payments throughout the year. Our overheads are recognised as some of the lowest in the industry and that’s the way we aim to keep it.
Ethical Maintenance Contact us today
Our maintenance services are tailored to your specific needs. Contact us today to learn more.
I’m Moving House
If you’re moving house, please get in contact with us and we’ll apportion the Service Charge up to your last day, before your house buyer takes on the responsibility of maintenance of common areas.
The Service Charge for your community will have been set at a community meeting and would be for the works agreed at that meeting.
Once it has been set, we will write to you letting you know how much we’re asking you to pay and the methods by which you can make a payment by: phone, at your bank, online bank transfer, by Standing Order or Direct Debit.
Solicitors often look after this part of the sale but keep in mind that the person moving in will want to know that you’ve paid your bills up to the date of sale.
We also need to know who has bought your property so check with your solicitor – your Title Conditions may put the onus on you to tell us and hold you responsible for bills until you do.
What If I’m Late Making a Payment?
If you’re having difficulty making payments then contact us as soon as possible. It’s important you get in touch so we can work with you to agree a payment plan.
It’s important you pay on time. Chasing late payments is time-consuming and expensive and we aim to keep administration costs as low as we can for homeowners who do pay on time.
If you still don’t pay your bill and don’t get in touch to agree a payment plan, then collection is passed to our debt manager.
You’ll then be asked to pay the Service Charge plus the cost of collecting it, in line with the agreement in your Title Conditions.
We may also ask you to pay any charges incurred by us due to your late payment.
“Due to a variety of things I got behind with some of my payments. I talked to EM and was able to sort things out. They were very understanding; it was much appreciated.”
L GRAY
Debt Recovery
We understand that no-one likes to pay bills. However, as your property factor working for you we provide the services that you tell us you want.
This means that we agree with you what the charges are going to be and you tell us whether you wish to pay for services quarterly or annually.
We are a Community Interest Company so we don’t ask owners to pay more than what the services cost us to provide. There is no pot of money held by us that we can dip into – we only charge owners what the services cost.
Once Ethical Maintenance has received the full amount for the cost of the service, we will be in a position to authorise the works as we are certain that we have the money to pay the supplier.
However, where an owner hasn’t paid their Service Charge, then we have a procedure that we follow to facilitate payment of the invoice so that each owner pays their fair share and works can be authorised, to maintain the property to its best standard.
This means that in order to maintain your property to the agreed level, everyone needs to pay their fair share of the running costs. How charges are apportioned is set out in every owner’s Title Deeds and we follow this legal declaration to share out the cost of works.
