Ad Esse Service Charges

Dan wanted to let you know about our free assessment tool we’ve developed at Ad Esse Service Charges. This tool looks at key areas of service charge excellence and offers an initial assessment of how your organisation is performing in each key area. If you know you have a problem but don't know where to start, you’re not alone. Our self-assessment tool will point you towards the next improvements you can make to maximise recovery and improve the customer experience. Start your free self-assessment now - https://buff.ly/3EhWBq3 Hopefully you find this helpful. If you have any questions or would like to talk about service charges at your organisation, please let us know. DM Dan or email hello@ad-esse.com. #SocialHousing #ServiceCharges

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight. We're signing off for the festive break - see you in the new year.

This is how one client described us today 👇 Need to chat with a service charge expert who is friendly but critical? Email hello@ad-esse.com and we'll set up a call ☕ ☕ #ServiceCharges #QuoteOfTheDay

A throwback to my favourite meme from last year. This year, I've been really good so hopefully Santa will provide the sector with some decent data 😉 #Housing #ServiceCharges #Christmas

Let's face it. After a few runs through the cycle, you're so conditioned to the challenges, failure, poor data, lack of systems, crap coding, poor chart of accounts, no property hierarchy, mediocre contract management, failure to consult, last-minute rushing, big pressure deadlines, fear of compliance failure, changing landscape and lack of understanding of the importance of what you do, you probably feel the same as poor old Sponge Bob... #ServiceCharges #SocialHousing #Housing

Explore our NEW service charges knowledge hub - https://buff.ly/3V0Q3Vr It's completely free and ungated. Take a look and let us know what you think, or if there's anything else you'd like to see. Comment below or email hello@ad-esse.com. Enjoy! 🎈 #ServiceCharges #KnowledgeHub #FreeResources

Each year, budget season gets a little earlier, somehow with the thought that it will ease the deadline pain. The mad rush at the end of the year is seen as not having enough time, so the best thing we can do is just increase the amount of time we have. Simple! Except you're treating the symptom, and not the cause, and it's not effective. Here's why: ❎ The business ultimately doesn't really understand why you need certain information in a certain way. It's seen as extra, surplus to their requirements and too difficult. They are busy with their own operational pressures. None of these things are fixed by extra time. You could give them two years notice and they still won't prioritise it. ❎ Certain important factors for judging the future costs (September inflation, which impacts pensions and benefits, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Reports and the Autumn budget statement) haven't been released yet or will be replaced with more accurate figures. You simply don't have the right information to build your assumptions for future cost yet. ❎ Moving the budget timeline to cross or run close to the delivery of actual demands causes challenges, distraction, the increase the use of S20B's (and a longer period of them being required) and worst of all, team burnout. So what to do? ✅ As hard as it can feel, engagement with the business is key. You need to build relationships across teams throughout the year to ensure the relationship is strong enough and there is enough understanding around why you need certain information by a certain time. ✅ Service charge budgeting needs to dovetail with your full budgeting process; make sure there are no excess information requirements which frustrate operational teams and that you come in at the right points in the process. Independent processes create gaps and can lead to duplication of effort and significant variances between recovered service charges and committed spend. You should definitely have that robust timetable, but consider whether bringing it forward each year is serving your requirements.

What a brilliant NLG conference that was, thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat to us, it was truly a day of highlights, and variety. Alan and the NLG team went out of their way to make the whole day enjoyable - thanks gang. Here's our highlights: - Dan won the mini gold putting challenge put on by Liquid Recruitment (and we should point out that it was a right handed putter and Dan is left handed....) - A very interesting session with Ann Santry CBE who spoke passionately about the work being done by the Shared Ownership Council (check them out and spread the word) - Kate being so inspired by a session with the ombudsman that she declared that in another life that could be her ideal job - she clearly already has her dream job in this life 😉 - A very inspiring and exciting talk from Bonita Norris about 'What climbing Everest taught her' - Watching our own team talk about Service Charges with a passion that is usually reserved for star trek fans (as one I'm allowed to write that!) - And lastly,..... listening to some of the Service Charge queries people have dealt with over the years. Think £10,000 court fees for disputing a 10p Service Charge. And no, no-one was pelted with our stress balls, but lots were taken to new homes. Come and join us next time. ✋

It's the week of the NLG Annual Conference! If you're there on Thursday, Rhiannon will once again be throwing our Service Charge Stress Balls at people - you've been warned! #ServiceCharges #SocialHousing #StressManagement

Sad, but ultimately true. With additional requirements come additional costs, many of which should be passed onto residents where appropriate. Passing on the additional costs related to new legislation isn't always popular, but it is the right thing to do. That said, it is absolutely a responsibility of landlords to ensure that when meeting the requirements, they are considering the value that they can add to the process. If we're going to need to send out more documents to residents - then lets ensure they do more than just comply with the legislation; lets create things that add value. If we're going to need to provide a summary of factual findings or similar regardless of the lease terms, lets make sure the process drives better controls and results. These are just two examples; there will be so many more that we need to consider and offer us opportunities for improvement. Residents don't like additional costs, but they hate additional costs which bring no value and just tick boxes. It's right that leaseholders and others who are responsible for their properties contribute fairly to the additional costs created by legislation. It's not right that they should receive no perceivable benefit from it. Of course we need to be compliant, but we need to move the sector's maturity from just compliance to opportunity. #ServiceCharges #SocialHousing #Legislation