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Understanding your rent and charges

The government sets the rent social landlords like whg can charge, how they should be reviewed and how much they can be increased each year. This is called the Rent Standard.

We aim to keep rents and service charges affordable and on average, our rents are much less than customers would pay in a similar privately rented home.

We write to you each year, usually in February, to explain any changes to your rent and service charges that will apply from April of the same year.

Service charges

If you live in one of our blocks, you will pay a service charge for maintenance of communal or surrounding areas. This includes cleaning, external maintenance, fire safety devices, lighting, lifts and grass cutting. Service charges can be ‘fixed’ or ‘variable’. If you pay a variable service charge, we will consult with you before making any major changes, and you can ask for a summary of costs.

Your tenancy agreement will clearly show what services we will provide as part of your rent.

If you are on a ‘social’ tenancy, any service charges that you need to pay will be detailed as a separate fixed amount alongside your rent.
If you are on an ‘affordable’ or ‘market rent’ tenancy, the service charge is set as part of your rent amount.

We review service charges each year and may increase them. When they increase, we always aim to stay in line with government recommendations to help keep charges affordable for customers. If we cannot do this, we’ll explain why when we write to you.

Wellbeing charges

If a wellbeing charge applies to your home, this will be set at the start of your tenancy and reviewed every year. If your wellbeing charge will be increasing, we will explain this when we write to you.

Garages and commercial buildings

Rents for garages and commercial properties are reviewed each year and may be increased.

Rent and service charge policy

Full information can be found in our rent and service charge policy.

How we spend your rent

We are a not-for-profit registered charity, which means every penny of your rent is reinvested into running our services and maintaining and improving homes.