Social housing tenant being charged exorbitant service charges

Babaganoush50

And I presume this is the clause: 

Babaganoush50

Ok so my question will be if these costs are ‘reasonable’ - can 100% increase each year for the last 4 years be justified given they are a social housing landlord? In my current situation it is just unaffordable - I don’t mind compromising on my own basic needs but how do I do that to my son? If service charges are unregulated and uncapped - it’s just lawless! 

HampshireH

Babaganoush50 said:

Ok so my question will be if these costs are ‘reasonable’ - can 100% increase each year for the last 4 years be justified given they are a social housing landlord? In my current situation it is just unaffordable - I don’t mind compromising on my own basic needs but how do I do that to my son? If service charges are unregulated and uncapped - it’s just lawless! 

Whether they are reasonable will depend on what they actually provide.

If you are unhappy then log a complaint and take it through the complaints process.

You can also consider tribunal. Have a read here for more info on each.

Id recommend exhausting the complaints procedure first getting all the relevant information and if your still not happy/believe they are unreasonable explore the tribunal option

Just be clear and concise in your complaint setting our what outcome you want / what information you are seeking to 
.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/council_housing_association/service_charges

Babaganoush50

Thanks @HampshireH - I have sent an email to the HA asking for it to be investigated. I have the other two residents in the building on board now too as they are also reeling from these increases. Given the fire safety contract is one of the high costs (and keeps increasing each year) I am disputing whether the alarm is even necessary in a building of our size. I have read all the fire and building regs. and it doesn't look like it. I think they treat this building as a 'block' of flats that have different legislation to what we require. Will keep you updated....

HampshireH

Good luck 

Keep the complaints process in mind. You should be able to do that as a group but will need to state that when logging it and also nominate a person to be point of contact

Babaganoush50

I sense I will be the one who will be corresponding - the consensus is that they are happy to go along with anything that I put forward to the HA. 

daveyjp

Babaganoush50 said:

I will try and add the relevant part of my tenancy - it won't attach for some reason. It does state in the conditions that service charge can be variable but I am wondering if because it specifies £0 if it can be argued that it does not apply to me? Would love nothing more than winning my case on a technicality 😊

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/council_housing_association/service_charges