If you live in a tenanted or shared ownership apartment block or residential scheme, we provide a range of services in communal areas of your building and grounds. The service charge you pay funds these services.

If you live in a sheltered scheme or extra care scheme, some services may be delivered differently. You can find out more on our independent living and extra care page.

What is a communal area?

A communal area is a shared space in a residential block or scheme all residents can use. Communal areas can include

• Corridors, stairways, entrances and lobbies.
• Shared facilities like lounges or laundrettes.  
• Outside spaces such as private parking and gardens.

Communal areas don’t include public parks, play areas or car parks.

You can read about the service you can expect from us if you live in a residential block or scheme on this page or by downloading our service standard below.

Grounds maintenance

Our Grounds Maintenance team keeps communal grounds clean, green, safe, tidy, and well-maintained throughout the year. The team make sure there is:

• Even and well-cut grassed areas.
• Clean and usable hard surfaces that are well maintained to reduce weeds, litter, leaves and moss.
• Well maintained hedgerows, shrub beds and trees that keep their shape, reduce weeds and litter, and don’t restrict access or encroach on windows/doors, footpaths, public access routes or highways.
• General care and attention to the grounds of your block.

Services the team provide include grass cutting, maintenance of hard surfaces, hedge trimming, minor tree works, litter picking and leaf clearance.

You can see how frequently we provide these services to your block by downloading and reading the schedules below.

If you need to report a grounds maintenance-related issue at your block or scheme, call us on 0300 333 6540 or email enquiries@bvt.org.uk

Cleaning and caretaking

We have our own team of estate caretakers that help keep your block, and the wider area, clean, safe and well-maintained. The cleaning and caretaking services we provide (either through our estate caretaking team or others) include:

• Cleaning the inside of your building, including areas such as the lobby, stairwells and landings.
• Keeping the outside of your building clean by working with our Grounds Maintenance team to remove litter, sweep bin stores/drying areas and help make sure surrounding areas of your block are well maintained.
• Carrying out health and safety inspections and compliance checks (such as weekly fire alarm testing and water flushing of infrequently used outlets) on a weekly and/or monthly basis where required.
• Removing graffiti or fly-tipping found or reported as quickly as possible. We aim to have fly tipping removed within 48 hours (weekdays) and graffiti within seven days. Please be aware removing fly-tipping comes at a cost and we ask all resident to dispose of waste responsibly.

In Lawley and Lightmoor Village in Telford, we also have a team of estate caretakers who provide some of these services. You can read more about this on our Lawley and Lightmoor websites.

If there is a cleaning issue in a communal area, please tell us. You can do this by calling us on 0300 333 6540 or emailing enquiries@bvt.org.uk

Repairs and servicing

We have our own Maintenance Services team that carry out repairs in communal areas of your building, as well as inside your home. We also regularly service facilities like lifts, door entry systems and launderettes. If something is broken or not working as it should in a communal area or inside your flat, (tenants only) please tell us. You can do this on our report a repair page, calling us on 0300 333 6540 or emailing repairs@bvt.org.uk

Health and safety

We want you to be safe and secure in your home and we provide a range of services in communal areas to do this. These include fire risk assessments, water, gas and electrical testing of communal supplies and asbestos inspections. You can read more about this on our home and building safety page.

Please do not store any items in communal areas, including entrances, stairwells, landings and drying areas. This is to reduce fire risk and make sure you and your neighbours can get in and out of buildings safely, especially in an emergency.

Items not to be stored include, but aren’t limited, to doormats outside front doors, bikes, pushchairs and wheelchairs.  We’ll always aim to work with you to find suitable storage solutions. If items are found in communal areas that are an immediate risk, for example flammables, large items blocking exits, we’ll remove them straight away to keep everyone safe.

Inspections and estate management

Our Estates and Stewardship teams help manage more than a dozen neighbourhoods. You may see estates officers out and about in your neighbourhood visiting homes and carrying out inspections. You can understand more about this service and report an estate issue on our estates and stewardship page.

Planned programmes and maintenance

To keep your building well maintained, we replace items like windows and doors, entry systems and carpets in communal areas when they come to the end of their life. We plan where and when work will happen based on the age and condition of items. When your building is ready for replacement works, we’ll contact you. You can read more about this on our planned programmes page.

Service charge

If you live in a residential block or scheme, you pay rent and a service charge. Rent covers the cost of your individual home and the service charge pays for looking after communal areas. We are currently reviewing our service charge processes, so please look out for more details, covering the information below, in the future.

We will estimate the cost of communal services by looking at ‘known costs’. These include prices agreed with contractors, the cost of electricity and repairs in the previous year, and inflation. Every year we will send you a statement that explains the costs that make up your charge.

To understand more about service charges, including how we calculate them, please download and read our service standard.

If you’re a tenant of any of our residential schemes or blocks and need advice or support with tenancy-related issues, our Neighbourhood Co-ordinators can help you. For more information, please go to our Neighbourhood Co-ordinators page.