Swift House

Council Tax is not included within the service charge.

We believe the charge provides good value for money. We do not provide any of the services ourselves, with the exception of the House Manager, who is employed by MSMS. At some of our most recent developments, the service charge also includes the cost of heating within the apartments.

Our service charges are fixed on an annual cycle and reflect the costs of the services we procure on behalf of our homeowners.

We share the individual costs that make up the service charge with homeowners and outline the methods for calculating the resulting charge. The service charge for each year is agreed in consultation with homeowners through an open book budgeting process.

We do our very best to negotiate the best cost with third party service providers on behalf of our homeowners. As part of our system of checks and controls to ensure they are treated fairly, we regularly monitor service charges in our managed schemes against current market practices and third party providers to ensure we offer competitive rates. We have developed a simple chart to help Customers make a direct comparison for use during the sales process and a full breakdown of the service charge budget is available from our Sales teams and House Managers at all new developments.  

Our management businesses, and service charges, reflect the expectations of our Customers and the Landlord (McCarthy & Stone Retirement Lifestyles) and the range of services required under the terms of the lease.  For example, we employ staff on each development, tender for all work with independent service providers and don’t take any commission or receive retrospective rebates.

In our Retirement Living schemes, the service charge covers a range of services provided for homeowners, such as:

• House Manager
• 24 hour emergency call system
• intruder alarm costs
• camera door entry system
• buildings insurance
• maintenance
• water rates
• sewerage rates
• window cleaning for external windows
• heating of the communal areas

We believe the charge provides good value for money. We do not provide any of these services ourselves, with the exception of the House Manager, who is employed by MSMS. At some of our most recent developments, the service charge also includes the cost of heating within the apartments.

In our Retirement Living PLUS schemes, in addition to the items set out above, the service charge also includes:

• the running cost of the restaurant (with a small additional cost payable per meal eaten in the restaurant, which is typically £4.00 for a three-course meal freshly prepared on-site)
• one-hour of domestic support per week from our staff on-site

Our team, which can total up to 17 people per development, is based on-site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is registered with the Care Quality Commission in England and its equivalent bodies in Scotland and Wales. Domestic support covers whatever time-consuming chores our homeowners would like undertaken, such as cleaning, shopping, running errands and domestic help. Our homeowners choose how best to use this support.

Additional personal care packages in our Retirement Living PLUS developments are totally flexible and can be adapted to suit our Customers’ needs, including help with going to bed and getting up in the morning, a sitting, night sleeping or waking service, preparing breakfast, getting to and from appointments or regular assistance during a period of convalescence.  All care and support services in Retirement Living PLUS developments can be provided by our on-site care staff.

Homeowners are under no obligation to take care packages from us and can use a third party if preferred.  For a list of the additional care and support packages provided in our Retirement Living PLUS schemes, please click here.