Should I complain about broken gate?

Jvic28

Hi Everyone,

I own 75% of my flat with a housing assosiation and we have to pay a service charge of £100 a month. I am in about 3 months worth of arrears which they are aware of and they have agreed that I can pay them back at a rate of £150 a month to pay it up to date and eventually I will need to pay until I am 3 months in advance with the payments. (Confusing I know but basically I think I need to pay them £600 to be even)

My problem is that our electronic gate to our "secure" car park has been broken and stuck open for about a month. No one has informed us when it will be repaired and I have never seen anyone there repairing it.

Should I complain about this, as I bought a property with secure parking or do you think it would rock the boat too much as they have agreed to a payment plan with me for repaying the arrears?

Would it cause a problem with my insurance company if someone broke into my car and they found out the gate wasn't closed?

Thanks

poppysarah

Yes. It will impact on your car insurance costs as you get (or should) a reduction for secure parking.

Jvic28

So really I could use that as a basis for complaining as currently our insurer thinks we have secure parking when really we don't?

poppysarah

You should probably ring your car insurance and tell them it's not secure at the moment. They will alter your car insurance premium.
Write to landlord saying gate is broken and needs repairing. Send them copy of letter when it arrives saying how much your car insurance has gone up because of the broken gate.
Then you can get frustrated by the lack of repair. How many other people are affected? If they all write to them too you might get it done quicker -

Your car insurance company may not care your parking isn't secure at the moment but you can bet they'd try and use it as a reason to cancel any payout that happened as a result if you don't tell them.

Jvic28

Thanks. Not a bad idea. It's not as if they don't know it needs repairing though. We have a concierge who works for the housing association. There are about 150 flats altogether although obviously not all of them have cars.

poppysarah

You might want to do some stirring if they're not going to do it. It'll be way down the list as it's (in their eyes) non essential. A nicely worded leaflet to encourage people to get onto the landlord about it should get the phones ringing.

joshtbh

Agree with the sentiment of poppysarah, I work for a housing association and I would advise complaining about the gate. It won't be the same department who repait it as who sorted your arrears. Even if it was they wouldnt care tbh.

Jvic28

Excellent. Thanks. I was just worried really that they may turn around and say well now we want £200 a month off you or something but if it's unlikely I'll go ahead and push for the gate to be fixed.

poppysarah

Make sure they have the complaint in writing asking for a completion date. And then take it from there. If they don't give one, write again. If they still don't give one then you're probably waiting til next years financial budget. You could evaluate the loss of secure parking as a % of your rent and ask for it back (You'd have to speak to CAB perhaps about whether it's a go-er, or even a free half hour with CAB)
If you can get all the car owners riled up, onto the landlord and local councillor you will eventually get it repaired. At the moment gates are going to be way down the list for most housing groups.

Jvic28

Thanks for all your advise everyone. Luckily my gate got fixed without me complaining.

Hopefully, I'll be up to date with my payments by the time something goes wrong again.