Our Story

Service Charges by Ad Esse is a specialist service-charge consultancy dedicated to helping Housing Associations improve the way service charges are managed, delivered, and understood.

Part of Ad Esse Consulting, we were created in response to the sector’s growing need for practical, operationally-focused service charge expertise. While many organisations understand the importance of service charges, delivering them effectively can be complex. Balancing compliance, customer expectations, cost recovery, operational delivery, systems, and changing legislation requires a unique combination of skills and experience. Our team combines deep service charge knowledge with expertise in operational excellence, process improvement, transformation, and change management. This means we do more than provide advice. We help organisations understand why problems exist, what good looks like, and how to make meaningful, sustainable improvements.

We support Housing Associations with everything from service charge maturity assessments and service reviews through to transformation programmes, systems support, capability development, retained advisory support, and practical delivery assistance. Our approach is grounded in collaboration, transparency, and practical improvement. We work alongside teams to create service charge functions that are more accurate, efficient, transparent, customer-focused, and operationally sustainable.

We are also the creators of the world’s first Service Charge Excellence Model — designed to help organisations better understand, measure, and improve service charge performance in a structured and manageable way.

Customer Testimonials

Aileen Evans, CEO, Grand Union

"I now sleep easy in my bed at night. Service Charges was the one thing that kept me awake but not anymore."
Victoria Lancaster, CFO GreensquareAccord

"Kate has made such an incredible difference to the team and to the rigour around service charges – it has moved on quicker than I could have hoped with your input so a huge thank you from us. "
Karen Cooper, CEO PCHA and Chair of the G320

"This is such a complex and high-risk area of the business and Kate managed to bring clarity to this often muddy area. More importantly she has given me some peace of mind about what can often be a reputational minefield."
Kate Still, CEO Rensensere Associates

“The best service charge professional I have worked with in the sector so far. A rare find.”
Michelle Augustus, CEO, Home From Home Housing

“Thank you for the presentation and recommendations – it is very much appreciated. This has given us the scope of works to be carried out to enable HFHF remain fully compliant.”
Hilary Cooke, Dir. of Finance & Procurement at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

"Ad Esse supported RBH in a service charge health check and follow up work. Lisa and Dan’s detailed knowledge of the area and clear understanding of ‘what good looks like’ have been a huge support to RBH. It has felt like a partnership as we have moved forward, as they have sought to understand our organisation and offer tailored and practical advice to us. We would highly recommend the health check Ad Esse offer as a first step."
Jonathan Turner, Assistant Dir. of Development, Southway

“Lisa has been an invaluable support to our service charge work. She quickly cuts through complex schemes, applies rigorous scrutiny to costings, and consistently aligns her recommendations with the compliance landscape. Lisa combines attention to detail with a clear understanding of our strategic business needs—and her determination to get things right has been unmatched.”
Mona Shah, Chief Finance & Investment Officer, GreensquareAccord

"A clear and insightful Service Charge Maturity Assessment, providing practical recommendations and a strong foundation for future service charge improvements."
David Hart, Executive Dir. of Finance, Golding Homes

“We initially engaged Ad Esse after uncovering some historic issues in our administration of service charges. Their ability to work quickly across the business, ensuring a holistic review, and providing clear recommendations for improvement in a collaborative way, worked really well for us. We’ve now strengthened our team, updated processes and embedded true collaboration to ensure we deliver value for money to our customers. Service charges is a complex area, and we’ve worked together to simplify where possible and ensure customers are well informed. As regulations change, this will continue to be a key focus for us.”
Sonya Payne, Project Management Contractor, SonSon Digital Services (project for Southern Housing)

'"It was a real pleasure working with Ad Esse on the Service Charge Transformation Programme at Southern Housing. As third party partners on the programme, we worked closely together on an important piece of transformation work. I worked closely with Yeukai, Lisa and Kate and our regular catch ups helped us build a strong rapport and a really positive working relationship. They were approachable, professional, and genuinely committed to achieving the right outcomes for Southern Housing. This helped create a strong, collaborative way of working throughout the programme. I really valued the opportunity to contribute my experience alongside the Ad Esse team, and I would happily work with them again and confidently recommend them to others."