Grounds Maintenance and Communal Cleaning
Find out how we look after the communal areas of your estate and help to ensure it’s kept it clean and tidy.
Our Cleaning and Grounds Maintenance Service is carried out by our contractors and monitored by our Estate Contract Officers who carry out regular inspections of blocks and estates to identify any issues.
Summer 2026 update:
We’re sorry if communal areas in and around your home have not been properly cleaned or looked after recently. We are aware that, in some areas, our contractors are not carrying out work to the agreed standard.
We’d like to reassure you that we have discussed the issue with them and have action plans in place to improve the situation. Thank you for your patience as we work to improve the service, and sorry again if you’ve been affected by this.
What are Estate Services?
Town & Country Housing provides more than 10,000 homes to families in Kent and Sussex, and a further 3,000 homes in in Surrey and West Sussex through Rosebery Housing.
As your landlord it’s our responsibility to keep the land around these homes, and shared spaces within them, clean and tidy. We use specialist contractors to carry out this work for us, which you pay for as part of your service charge.
We call this work ‘Estate Services’ and these are the type of things that are covered:
- Grass and hedge cutting in communal areas
- Maintaining play areas
- Cleaning of internal communal areas in blocks of flats
- Communal window cleaning
- Lighting in communal areas
- Cleaning bin stores
- Dealing with fire hazards, such as items left in communal areas.
Hedge cutting season
Hedges on communal land are generally cut back twice a year, usually in late July or August (to avoid bird nesting season) and then again in late autumn.
Works consist of trimming back that season’s growth on the sides and top of the hedge, to make sure that hedges are left looking neat and tidy and do not overhang public footpaths. Our contractors should remove all trimmings from site when they're done.
Grass Cutting season
Grass cutting will normally start late February or early March and will run through to late autumn.
Cutting will take place, on average, every two weeks but may be more or less frequently depending on the growing conditions.
The grass cuttings will be collected after the first cut of the year but after this are left on site. All paths should be swept clear of cuttings, please Contact Us if this hasn’t happened.
Looking after your garden
Our Grounds Maintenance service looks after communal outdoor areas, but we are unable to carry out work in residents’ private gardens.
If you're finding it difficult to maintain your garden due to age, ill health or mobility issues, support may be available. Our Money Support Team may be able to help you check whether you're entitled to benefits that could help towards the cost of a gardener or other support services.
There are also local organisations that may be able to offer practical help, advice or signpost you to volunteer gardening services, including Age UK, local community groups, charities and churches.
If maintaining a garden is becoming increasingly difficult, it may also be worth considering whether a different type of home would better suit your needs. Town & Country Housing offers a range of housing options, including Later Living communities and homes with little or no garden maintenance required.
To speak to our Money Support Team or find out more about your housing options, please contact us.