I suspected that Stevenage Homes overcharged for maintenance work last year. I have been trying to get some of the money refunded Some good news on this, I received the following email from Anne Hensley,

Hi Tim

As mentioned at the last meeting, the charge of £1177.41 is going to be removed from all leaseholders (pro rata) repairs charge. I am currently waiting for my manager to advise me with regard to the cost of the fire door to the electrical cupboard (£2428). He is investigating the cost of the door for me.

The removal of the first item will result in a credit of approx £26 to each leaseholders service charge account. Hopefully I will receive information relating to the second item under query before I go on annual leave next Wednesday. However if I am not in a position to give a final amount to credit to your account, it would be acceptable for you to withhold at least £26 from the amount due on the understanding that this will be resolved during April.

As you can see I’ve copied Angelina Romano from income maximisation in to this email so that she is aware of the situation and will not chase leaseholders if they withhold some of their service charges as stated above.

I will be in touch as soon as I receive my manager’s comments.

Regards
Anne Hensley

So that is probably £52 back from the extra money levied. Which is just over half.

The thing I found most surprising about this is that the procurement department could not justify these costs. I am pretty sure if we went to a tribunal they would have to do so, or we could refuse to pay anything.

It all sounds a bit chaotic at Stevenage Homes / Borough Council at the moment.

At least we can withhold payment until April, at least according to one part of Stevenage Homes we can.

Previous in this series

Popularity: 4%