Service charges
Posted on 15th May at 10:31 AM
With the switchover to Digital TV, many existing communal TV aerial systems will need to be either replaced or adapted to enable them to receive digital TV signals.
If landlords or managing agents choose to seek to recover the costs of this work through service charges they need to consider residents’ statutory rights and other legal, social and logistical factors. Legislation will differ across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Landlords will wish to recover their costs of providing services, which will be governed by the terms of the tenancy and lease agreements.
Deciding on the specification of service to be provided may depend on what residents wish to receive and what they can afford to pay. Elderly English-speaking residents, are often content with the traditional analogue channels. A basic Freeview upgrade may be sufficient for them. Others may want a wider variety of entertainment and so other options may be more suitable.
In theory a landlord could offer a pick-and-mix installation and levy a service charge that depends on the service provided. The installation, however, would be complicated and the administration of levying a range of charges and of reconfiguring the service at re-letting or assignment, is likely to be a burden.
The only realistic option is to consult with the residents to identify their preferred range of services and provide an installation that meets the residents requirements at the earliest opportunity. A landlord recovering the costs of the installation should remember that high specification system could cause financial hardship for some residents.
Services to flats might be tailored when a lease agreement does not provide a mechanism for levying a contribution. The lessee may refuse to enter into a supplementary agreement to receive and pay for the additional service. In such circumstances a social landlord may be under a fiduciary duty not to incur cost of installation as there is little chance of recovery therefore upgrading a lessee’s flat may have to be omitted from the scheme.
There is no government funding for the upgrade of communal TV aerial systems for social or private sector landlords.
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