Changes to Service Charge Collection
Pinnacle have been asked to align all leaseholders’ payments with their leases, which means that from April 2024 all invoices for service charge and major works will be printed with the lease requirement of payment to be made in 28 days from the date of the invoice.
Pinnacle will work with you to arrange instalment payments over 10 months for service charge or slightly longer for major works if you need this.
We have a dedicated team called leasehold income recovery who you can contact directly by email at pfileaseholdincome@pinnaclegroup.co.uk
Leaseholder Information
Service Charges
Regenter Brockley on behalf Lewisham Council oversees the annual service charges in accordance with the lease agreement.
This includes providing the annual estimate of service charges every April for the new financial year. Followed by the Actual service charge costs once that financial year has ended.
If we have not received the up to date costs for the services provided to you, we will send you notification in the form of a Section 20B Notice which tells you that we will still be sending you Actuals but they will be late.
The annual service charges will include the specified amount for ground rent, and an apportionment of annual costs including:
• General maintenance and repairs in communal areas
• Lift maintenance
• Lighting in communal areas
• Cleaning communal areas
• Grounds maintenance
• Dealing with antisocial behaviour
• Customer services at our housing office
• Leasehold management charge
We bill you for service charges to recover our costs in providing services to blocks, buildings and estates. You pay service charges only for the services and work for your block, building or/ and estate, including our management services.
The lease sets out how your share of the charge is worked out. We will send you a bill each year for services provided to the shared areas of your block, building, and estate. Regenter Ltd as the Council’s managing agent, have a duty to collect your share of these costs.
The cost of building insurance (for the shared areas, structure and outside only) is included in your service charge bill. You have to purchase your own building insurance for the reinstatement of your flat should this be necessary. You are also advised to take out home contents insurance.
How to Pay your Service Charges
By standing order
You can pay your service charge by standing order through your bank. You can get a standing order form by contacting the Housing Office
If you have online or telephone banking, or your bank has provided a blank standing order form, you can set up a standing order using the following details:
Bank: Barclays Bank PLC
Account name: London Borough of Lewisham
Sort Code: 20 00 00
Account No: 93380513
You must quote your service charge account number as a reference to ensure your payment is credited to your account.
By cheque
Cheques should be made payable to London Borough of Lewisham
Please write your address and service charge account number on the back of the cheque so we can easily identify the payment and make sure it reaches your account. You should send your cheque to: Pinnacle, Ground Floor, 111 Endwell Road, Brockley SE4 2PE
Over the phone
You can pay via the automated telephone service by calling 0208 690 8707 and press option 3 for service charges. (Please note once you have paid you will get an authorisation code, please take a note of it)
Sub-Letting
You have the right to rent out your home to someone else, but you will remain the responsible leaseholder unless you transfer the lease to your tenant. As the lessee you must obtain consent from your mortgage lender if there is an outstanding mortgage on the property, this includes a Council mortgage.
The tenancy agreement should require the sublet to comply with the terms of the lease referring to the use of the property, building and estate. The sublet should be provided with a copy of the lease. If the sublet creates a nuisance Regenter Brockley will look to the private landlord as the leaseholder of the property to remedy the problem.
You must give a copy of the tenancy agreement and the name and contact phone number of your tenant. You must also give us your new address and phone numbers for correspondence and in case of emergencies.
The conditions of your lease will still apply to you while you are not living in your property. Therefore you must ensure that your tenants agree to the contract you have with Lewisham Council, namely the terms of the lease, and you must tell your tenant to abide by the conditions of your lease. If they do not, you will be breaking your lease agreement and any action we may take will be against you.
Under the terms of the Lease the property may be sub-let to a single person, couple or a family. It must not be sub-let to separate, unrelated individuals e.g. students.
By renting out your home you will become the landlord of your tenant. You will then be responsible for the landlord’s duties arising under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
This means, that by law you are responsible for making sure that your gas appliances, pipework and flues are safe and well-maintained. You should arrange for a yearly gas safety check to be carried out by a Gas Safe registered gas engineer and make sure that you give your tenant a copy of the yearly gas safety record (CP12).
Landlords who breach the gas safety laws and put lives at risk face tough sentencing in the courts. You can get more information about this from Gas Safe on 0800 408 5500 or by visiting www.gassaferegister.co.uk.
Failure to notify of a sublet property could invalidate the building insurance policy of that property
Selling your property
When you sell your property the buyer will want to see certain information relating to the property and the accounts. We offer a Management Pack which contains the last 3 years’ service charges and reports relating to the property, such as Fire Risk and Asbestos reports. There is a charge of £150.00 plus VAT for sending this out to either your solicitor or to yourself. The cheque is to be made payable to Pinnacle psg for this administration.
Major Work Section 20 Process
Rydon carry out a Ground Level survey to enable the Section 20 estimate to be produced.
Rydon compile a cost estimate of the works for the items that can be seen. Contingencies/provisional sums to be included for unforeseen works.
Pinnacle receives request from Rydon to serve S20 notice to leaseholders in the building.
Once served, leaseholders are given 30 days to raise any concerns on the Section 20
Rydon erect scaffolding, if necessary
Rydon carry out High Level survey using scaffolding
Rydon assess if there are any significant change in the work or cost proposed at Section 20 stage – if there is, then Rydon notify Pinnacle to serve supplementary Section 20 notice for proposed work. Sometimes this means withdrawing a Section 20 notice and reissuing a new one if the newly identified work will cost substantially more.
The Work is aimed to be carried out within one month after the 30 days observation period expires
Most work is completed over approximately 12 weeks
Once all work is finished Pinnacle receives final costs and details of work completed from Rydon or Regenter
Pinnacle compile Final Account invoice letter and send out with spreadsheet of work breakdown to all leaseholders in the building
Pinnacles Leasehold Income Team recovers the invoice amount.
Arrangements to pay in instalments can be discussed with this team.
Brockley Fire Door Replacement Specification
All leaseholders will be required to provide a certificate of compliance for the door set and installation.
Replace Flat entrance doors with FD30 Door set- No top light
Specification of the Door needed:
FIat Entrance FD30 and frame: Supply and fit new FD30 flat entrance door and frame (Up to minimum and maximum sizes in line with the current standards under the test data x 44mm depth). Remove and dispose of existing door set complete, Supply and install Fire Door set as per manufacturers installation instructions. Door set to consist of a 70mm, fully reinforced PVC-U frame with a leaf consisting of SMC faces and a Graduated Density Particleboard (GDC) core on an engineered laminated hardwood edging. Door to be factory hung and fitted with all Ironmongery relevant to door tested to BS 476 Part 22. Door to be supplied with copy of certification and door labelled or plugged to show compliance, Ironmongery to Include 3No steel hinges CE marked and compliant with BS EN 1935; a self-closing device compliant with BS EN 1154; an ERA Auto latch multipoint lock with thumb turn loc22 on the inside compliant with PAS24:2016 and an intumescent letter plate tested to BS 476-20/22.
Replace Flat entrance doors with FD30 Door set-Small top light
Specification of the Door needed:
Flat Entrance FD30 and frame with small top light (0.4m 2): Flat Entrance FD30 and frame- Supply and fit new FD30 flat entrance door and frame (Up to minimum and maximum sizes in line with the current standards under the test data x 44mm depth). Remove and dispose of existing door set complete. Supply and install Fire Door set as per manufacturers installation instructions. Door set to consist of a 70mm, fully reinforced PVC-U frame with a leaf consisting of SMC faces and a Graduated Density Particleboard (GDC) core on a engineered laminated hardwood edging. Door to be factory hung and fitted with all ironmongery relevant to door tested to BS 476 Part 22, Door to be supplied with copy of certification and door labelled or plugged to show compliance. Ironmongery to include 3 No steel hinges CE marked and compliant with BS EN 1935; a self-closing device compliant with BS EN 1154; an ERA Auto latch multipoint lock with thumb turn locking on the inside compliant with PAS24:2016 and; an intumescent letter plate tested to BS 476- 20/22 With intumescent smoke and fire seal tested to BS EN 1634 Part3:2004 Door frame extended at head to full width with glazed top light less than 0.4m2, Frame to be glazed with 30 minute fire resistant glazing system consisting Pilkington Pyrobelite EW30/Stainless Steel Spacer/Pilkington Optilam, installed to manufacturer’s instructions Door, frame and glazing to be collectively compliant with BS 476 Part 22.
Replace Flat entrance doors with FD30S Doorset- Small toplight
Specification of the Door needed:
Flat Entrance FD30s and frame with small top light (0.4m 2): Flat Entrance FD30s and frame- Supply and fit new FD30s flat entrance door and frame (Up to minimum and maximum sizes in line with the current standards under the test data x 44mm depth) Remove and dispose of existing door set complete. Supply and install Fire Door set as per manufacturers
installation instructions, Door set to consist a 70mm, fully reinforced PVC-U frame with a leaf consisting
SMC faces and a Graduated Density Particleboard (GOC) core on a engineered laminated hardwood edging. Door to be factory hung and fitted with all ironmongery relevant to door tested to BS 476 Part 22- Door to be supplied with copy of certification and door labelled or plugged to show compliance Ironmongery to include 3No steel hinges CE marked and compliant with BS EN 1935; a self-closing device compliant with BS E EN 1154; an ERA Auto latch multipoint lock with thumb turn locking on the inside compliant with PAS24:2016 and; an intumescent letter plate tested to BS 476-20/22. With intumescent smoke and fire seal tested to BS EN 1634 Part 3:2004 Door frame extended at head to full width with glazed top light less than 0.4 m2 Frame to be glazed with 30-minute fire resistant glazing system consisting of Pilkington Pyrobelite EW30/Stainless Steel Spacer/Pilkington Optilam, Installed to manufacturer’s instructions- Door, frame and glazing to be collectively compliant with BS 476 Part 22
We need the full test details for the door as per the guidelines from FireComply the consultants working with Regenter. They have said:
“The FD30S doorsets should have been subject to a fire test, under controlled conditions by a specialist (such as IFC, Exova Warringtonfire) to determine its performance in significant heat and smoke conditions.”
Please note: the specification the contractor provides should be for a full doorset not just a door assembly.
Pre-order to be issued to Regenter B3 for Approval
The detailed FD30S doorset specification is provided by the installer.
The fire test report for the doorset is provided by the installer.
A summary of the materials to be used during the installation is provided.
A methodology for the installation is provided by the installer.
During the install the following MUST be evidenced
The installer collects photographic evidence during the removal of the existing door / frame and during the installation of the new doorset
Photographic evidence should include:
a) the existing doorset in situ
b) the gap when the existing doorset has been removed - noting the condition of the walls on each side, the top and the bottom of the door
c) the gaps between the frame and the wall when the door set is first installed
d) the application of the approved specified materials to seal the gap between the frame and the wall
e) the final finish of the installation
Click below to access the Brockley Leasehold Handbook: