Sanctuary Housing, my landlord, increased the service charge in our building by nearly 25% last year, whilst failing to provide the services they were charging for. The lifts stayed out of action for weeks, we suffered periods of no heating, no hot water in winter, and the CCTV didn’t work.
Just before Christmas, some progress was made; repairs had been carried out, and the installation of working CCTV (after years of tenants paying for CCTV maintenance which didn’t happen) was confirmed for March 2024.
Lifts out of action again
Unfortunately, the saga continues. Last year, while I was dealing with a landlord who didn’t provide the services that we all pay good money for, I was hit by a curveball of another kind. I found out that I have no cartilage in my left hip, and was told I needed to lose a substantial amount of weight in order to get a hip replacement.
It has not been an easy time. I have become less and less mobile. I have been walking with two sticks for a while now, and cannot really manage stairs. I am on heavy-duty painkillers with side effects about a mile long. My weight loss is progressing very, very slowly.
I live on the fifth floor. The building has two lifts; one serves floors 1, 3, 5 and 7, and the other serves floors 2, 4, 6 and 8. The elevator for the odd-numbered floors has been particularly unreliable. It broke down on 29 March 2024 but was quickly repaired. However, it broke down again on 5 April and remained non-operational until 16 April. The same elevator broke down again on 21 April. Obviously, this causes significant problems to residents, especially those with mobility issues. And it’s not just me.
One tenant has got stage four bone cancer, and another also uses walking sticks. Several other tenants have to lug a lot of tools to their car to get to work. These repeated breakdowns cause problems to a lot of tenants. Sanctuary Housing ‘apologises for the inconvenience’ but this isn’t an inconvenience, it is a major issue. Last year’s 25% service charge hike feels like an insult.
Heating bill hike
The service charge is not the only bill to go up. In March, Sanctuary Housing increased the heating charges for some residents by over 400%. Residents, unsurprisingly, were outraged. After a number of complaints, Sanctuary recalculated the charges and admitted to making a mistake. They have promised £50 in compensation, but so far, this has not materialised for everyone.
I try to communicate with the housing officers to find out what’s going on, to see if we can get things sorted out, but it often feels as if I’m banging my head against a brick wall. The housing officer’s latest suggestion, given my mobility issues, is that I should move elsewhere.
Sanctuary Housing claims that “putting our customers first is at the heart of everything we do.”
Right now, it’s difficult to believe that.
