Frequently Asked Questions

We try and help residents take the necessary steps to protect themselves against anti-social behaviour. If you experience any problems of this nature, you should act immediately by contacting your local neighbourhood policing team to report anti-social behaviour. Other agencies such as environmental health can also help residents with these matters.

For further guidance on dealing with anti-social behaviour, you may find the TPI Leaseholder Advice Note on Anti-Social Behaviour helpful.

In the first instance, we encourage residents to try to resolve any issues with their neighbours directly, if they feel comfortable doing so. If the problem continues, please contact your local authority’s environmental health officer.

For further guidance, leaseholders may find the TPI Leaseholder Advice Note on Noisy Neighbours helpful.

For legal reasons (subject to the terms of your lease), it’s important that Kingston knows of all sales and purchases. If you’re in the process of selling or purchasing a property managed by Kingston, please contact us so we can advise you further.

For further advice on buying and selling your property, please refer to the TPI Leaseholder Advice Note on Buying and Selling a Leasehold Flat.

You’ll find your allocated parking bay in the plan, which was given to you alongside your lease when you purchased your property. If you don’t have a copy, please contact us and we may be able to provide a copy. If not, you’ll need to refer back to your solicitor or the developer of your property.

Residents are responsible for arranging the removal and disposal of bulky waste and should contact the local authority or take to the nearest recycling centre. Items that need removing by Kingston require a contractor and will be billed through the service charge. Where responsible individuals can be identified, costs may be recharged directly to them.

This is to cover the cost of services that are in the terms of your lease. This can include window cleaning, gardening, communal electricity, minor repairs, buildings insurance, agent management and accountancy fees. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to your annual service charge budget, which is issued each year by your Property Manager.

Find out more about the managing agent’s role and the leasehold system by reading the TPI Leaseholder Advice Note on What Does a Managing Agent Do?

• Monthly direct debit – download a mandate from our online portal and return the completed mandate via post or to mail@kingstonpropertyservices.co.uk
• Cheque made payable to Kingston Property Services (with your tenant reference on the reverse).
• Debit or credit card by phone or in person at our office.
• Online payment through our online portal (please see guidance on how to register your portal account).

Please note: if your bank returns a direct debit payment or an unpaid cheque, an administration fee will be debited to your account, and the facility may be withdrawn if missed payments are not covered. Payment will then need to be met according to the terms of your lease/TP1.

Leaseholders may need to pay ground rent to the freehold owner of their property depending on the terms of their lease. Ground rent is sometimes collected on behalf of the freeholder by Kingston and is separate to any other charges that are used for the management of your development.

The service charge budget is primarily for the day-to-day costs of managing your property. However, a reserve or sinking fund contribution is usually made each year to steadily build up a fund for future, unexpected or major works. The costs of major works will need to be shared out and charged as a separate, additional item if there aren’t enough funds available.

The money relating to your property/development is held in a designated client trust account in accordance with applicable regulations. These monies are held separately from Kingston’s own funds and are held on trust for the benefit of the leaseholders.

Interest earned on the accounts is credited to the relevant trust funds. A trust fund tax return on behalf of its clients is submitted to the HMRC to declare the interest earned and the interest received by your property/development is disclosed in the balance sheet notes of the service/estate charge accounts.

All client funds are at Barclays Bank PLC who are members of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is here to protect your money, it is the body which gives you automatic protection up to £120,000 if the banking institution fails.

Under the terms of your lease, you’re usually responsible for contributing to the cost of the buildings insurance. If buildings insurance is paid through the service charge, you don’t need to arrange separate buildings insurance yourself. However, you’ll still need to arrange separate contents insurance for your property.

To make a claim on your buildings insurance, you’ll need to contact your buildings insurance provider directly. If you’re not sure who provides your buildings insurance policy, please contact us.

If you don’t pay charges on time, which are allocated to you under the terms of your lease, we’ll need to take steps to legally recover the outstanding debt. If you have a query or payment difficulties, please contact us as soon as possible.

If you’re changing your correspondence/billing address, please contact us in writing so we can amend our records. If you don’t tell us you’ve changed your address, we won’t be able to send your service charge invoices to the correct address or let you know of any important issues at your development.

You can also Register Your Email Address to receive all correspondence direct to your inbox.

Our offices are open Monday to Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm. We also have an emergency out-of-hours service that runs after 5:00pm and on weekends. This service is for urgent communal repairs and health and safety issues only.