Housing Association

iluvmarmite

Hi, dont know if this is the right part to post this but we rent our flat from the local housing association, there are 4 flats in the block, two on the 1st floor and two on the ground.

We live on the ground floor, just myself and my Husband, no kids, the other couple on the ground floor have one child who is 10 years old, upstairs there is one single young Mother who has 2 very young children, and a young couple who also have young children, one of them a 9 month old baby.

The tenants in the upstairs flats tend to put their baby buggies, old hoovers, old lawn mowers and other stuff under the stairs on the ground floor, they put their recycling bins on the upstairs landing outside their front doors along with kids shoes and muddy boots etc. The housing company provide cleaners who come round weekly to clean and mop the downstairs hallway and upstairs landing.

The cleaners havent been around for a few weeks now, yesterday I (and I assume the others in the block) recieved a letter from our housing manager stating that the cleaners have complained about the items under the stairs and all the stuff on the top landing as its made their job difficult to do and they dont see why they should either work around the mess or move it all to work, I for one dont blame them and they have now refused to come to the block to clean.

The letter stated that the housing manager will be out to see it for herself on Monday (22nd August) and any items under the stairs and on the top landing will be removed, no matter if its a childs buggy or toys, anything thats there will be removed and taken to the local tip, then the money its cost to do this will be shared between all four flats. I find this totally unfair that I should have to pay for the mess the upstairs tenants have made, as I said we have no children so none of the child related stuff is ours, we have our own garden so our lawn mower goes in our shed, we have no reason to take our recycling bins and muddy shoes up stairs and leave them outside their flats!

What would happen if I just refused to pay for this? Is is grounds for eviction, or would I get taken to court? Does anyone one know.

By the way, both flats upstairs do have a ground floor garden each, which of course they have to come downstairs to use, but both have big sheds in them which are for the purpose of storing gardening tools, including lawn mowers, or what ever they like, so there is no excuse really for storing such items inside the block.

Emmzi

Communal area. Communal responsibility. Communal charge. Can small claims court the neighbours to recover if so inclined, don't fancy your chances of making it a nice place to live after that.

Should have talked to the neighbours. Personally I'd ask if they want a hand moving stuff before the deadline.

Hump

The Housing Association's letter is presumably designed to scare you all into action (usually they are full of pomp and bluster and little substance because most staff have little if any training on what they should/ can put in a letter)

I assume you have a tenant's handbook (if not it may be available from the Housing Association's website or office). This usually outlines what is expected including any charges the association might impose.

Put simply - If it's not in the tenants handbook then they will struggle to charge you.

I would go further and complain to the Housing Manager/ Officer that the Association's lack of effective management processes is putting your family at greater risk of injury in the event of a fire as the communal areas are being allowed to be used for storage and if something isn't done straight away you will be contacting fire officer/ environmental health department/ housing association tenant board member* (*delete as appropriate) - and that you expect an apology for this situation arising and assurances that it won't be allowed to happen again in the future. You should also ask them for their 'fire risk assessment' of your block (this may make the Housing Manager/ Officer come out in a cold sweat/ rash) and if there isn't one then why isn't there one (see http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/ContentDetails.aspx?id=19843 )