Reclaiming excess rent on Service Accomodation

Lillys_mum

I am not sure where to post this so please feel free to move if necessary.

Does anyone have any knowledge on the following issue, and advice would be great.

We currently live in forces accomodation and queried our monthly charge a while back.
There has been a review undertaken in October and it was decided that mine and my neighbours house would be regraded to a 2 which would mean it would now be the same as all the other houses in the street. It has up until now been classed as a grade 1 even though all the remaining houses in the street are a grade 2. The difference is about £50 per month and we have been here since July 2005, we have always felt it unfair that we were charged more for the same house and would just like to know where we would stand regarding claiming the excess back as the house is no different to how it was back in July 05.

Both myself and my neighbour feel we have been treated unfairly by having to pay more than the rest of the street when all the houses are identical and we would be keen to try and claim the excess back if at all possible as no one else in the street had to pay as much as us and we all have exactly the same facilities etc which has just been proven by the decision to regrade us to the same as the others.

Thanks in advance

LM
xx

clutton_2

hi, i have a strong feeling that forces accommodation does not fall within the remit of normal landlord-tenant legislation. I maybe be wrong. Is there not a forces welfare office someone like SAFA (?) you can talk to ? if not then i suggest you contact CAB - they will know who will be the best organisation to talk to.

Lillys_mum

I have just emailed SAFFA to see whether they can offer any advice, hopefully I will hear back from them soon. I wouldn't mind if it was just a few quid but we are talking a difference of around £50 per month so in the 31 months we have been here that is quite alot of money.

Thanks for the advice

LM
xx

clutton_2

i recall seeing a programme on TV maybe a year ago which shocked me utterly at the state of accomm offered by the army to its service personnel - if i, as a private landlord, provided such appalling conditions Environmental Health would be on my back like a shot. But the programme makers seemed to be saying the Government properties were not subject to the same criteria - if they aren't - they darn well should be

Lillys_mum

I must admit our house is in a reasonable state of repair, it is old and does show signs of age but what makes me laugh is the 10 layers of magnolia paint which stop you from being able to shut doors properly!!!

They could do with a complete revamp but they just say we don't have the money, so they do corner cutting repairs which in the long term don't save them anything as they will have to re repair the same fault time and time again.

Alias_Omega

Hello,

In the past when i have lived in single accomodation, it was reduced from grade 2 to grade 4.

We were given a date of when the accomodation was regraded, and we got a refund of pay to that date. The refund was reflect within the next months pay slip.

This was all before the time of JPA, but if you were in the Raf, i would be looking to send the serving member up to see the Chief Clerk for more information.

If they only recently regraded the accomodation, then in short you will only get it back dated to that date.

Lets hope you can pursuade them to back date it further.

Lillys_mum

Thanks for your reply. My husband is currently in Basra until April so is unable to do anything but I will be doing everything I can to see if we can get it backdated to when we moved in as it is a very unfair system.
They have said in the letter that the revised rate will be effective from Feb payslip, but considering we have been here for 31mths and had to pay a higher rate for no good reason I am going to try and get that back, am waiting to hear from SAFFA at the moment but I don't really know where else to go.

Many thanks

LM
xx

BettiePage

Lillys_mum wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. My husband is currently in Basra until April so is unable to do anything but I will be doing everything I can to see if we can get it backdated to when we moved in as it is a very unfair system.
They have said in the letter that the revised rate will be effective from Feb payslip, but considering we have been here for 31mths and had to pay a higher rate for no good reason I am going to try and get that back, am waiting to hear from SAFFA at the moment but I don't really know where else to go.

Many thanks

LM
xx

Hi LM, I'm also married to the RAF (for my sins). Do you have a point of contact for while your husband is away? If not, go see the Chief Clerk yourself.
Our mq's were reviewed about 2 years ago and downgraded. DHE (as they were then) appealed and got it overturned :rolleyes:

We too have magnolia woodchip with about 30 years worth of paint on it. Also, the walls were skimmed with concrete so hanging pictures is fun.
Not to mention the !!!!py, temperamental oven, the !!!!py temperamental shower, nylon carpets with nails sticking out on the stairs so the catch your heels, warped window frames, decrepit heating system, rusty radiators that desperately need bleeding but will most like dissolve if touched with a radiator key, dodgy electrics - bulbs blow at least once a week, appliances don't last long here-, problems with the water tank in the loft.
The list is endless!

Lillys_mum

Hi Bettiepage,

I do have a point of contact but I just need to get all the facts together first and try and produce a case for them to look at.

If our house was differect to everyone elses I would not be bothered but the fact that it is a street of 39 identical houses with 37 grade 2 and 2 grade 1 (now down graded to 2) I think it is unfair that we have had to pay more for the same quality of house as everyone in the street. - for all the forces people there is not a rank issue here either, they are standard quarters for junior ranks and everyone in the street is CPL or below.

I just need to find out from my neighbour whether she is prepared to fight this too as we are the only 2 people affected by this - her husband is also away at present in the Falklands so he cannot be of any help at the moment.

Alias_Omega

Where you located, im over at Coningsby

BettiePage

Spoke to hubby who said that you'd need to raise it with Modern Housing Solutions as the Raf only bill you what they're told to by MHS (I still call them DHE old habits and all that)