Your Management Fee - What we're reviewing and why

If you pay a service charge to Aster, you’ll see a “management fee” included in your bill. In our previous update, we explained that this fee helps cover the cost of managing the services covered by your service charge; including grounds maintenance, cleaning, communal equipment inspections, and support from our customer accounts, finance neighbourhood and contact centre teams.

We’re now sharing an important update about work being undertaken to improve the fairness and transparency of the management fee.

The management fee is currently set at 15% of your service charge (excluding personal charges, sinking funds and sewage charges). This means the amount you pay for the management fee will change if your service charge goes up or down. The fee helps cover the work involved in arranging and monitoring the services you receive, and in supporting you with queries or payment arrangements.

What we’ve found

We’ve recently carried out a full review of the 15% management fee. That review showed that the fee isn’t currently covering the full cost of providing the services it relates to.

This means we have less available to spend on other important areas such as repairs, maintenance, and improvements to homes and communal spaces. We know that isn’t fair or sustainable in the long term, and it also makes the fee less clear than it should be.

What we’re doing to fix it

We’ve been looking at new ways to structure the management fee so that it more accurately reflects the true cost of delivering the service. Our aim is to develop an approach that is fair, clear and financially sustainable.

No decisions have been made yet, but we want you to be aware that any changes will be carefully reviewed and explained to you before anything is introduced.

What happens next

We’ll be writing to you in the new year to share an update on the work we’ve been doing and to explain what the management fee might look like going forward. This update will be just to keep you informed - nothing will be changing at that stage.

Before anything can be finalised, the plans will need to be reviewed by an independent tribunal. That process can take a little while, so we’ll make sure you’re kept up to date throughout.

Once we have a decision from the tribunal, we’ll contact you again with clear information about what’s been agreed and what it means for you. Until then, everything will stay exactly as it is.

Why this matters

Evolving the management fee is an important step in making sure the services you receive are funded fairly and transparently. It will also help ensure that rent can be used to improve homes and neighbourhoods, support repairs and maintenance, and continue delivering the services that matter most to our customers.

We’ll share more information as soon as we can. If you have any questions in the meantime, our contact centre is here to help - 0333 400 8222.