Understanding the relationship between rents and service charges is important for all stakeholders in the HA sector. Tenants need to budget for their housing costs by understanding what elements of those costs relate to rent and service charges and which elements of these costs can be met from housing benefit payments. HAs must determine their overall incomes in such a way that costs can be covered from this income. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between service charges and gross and net rents; and how they vary between different property sizes, areas and types of housing association (HA) - Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) HAs, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) HAs and mainstream HAs.