Cllr Sheridan Kates who lives in a building in Highbury where service charges had ‘doubled’ without warning

SOCIAL housing tenants are being “abused” by unfettered service charges from housing associations, campaigners have claimed, calling for more scrutiny and accountability for landlords.

Across the borough, residents living in housing association blocks told the Tribune how their landlords were increasing service charges with no warning, itemising services they weren’t receiving and charging some residents more than others.

Natasha Dyett, who is a social tenant in the Archway Heights block managed by Places For People, said she was making monthly service charge payments, on top of her rent, for tree surgeons and window cleaners.

This is despite there being no trees on her estate and the communal block windows never being cleaned.

She said: “It’s completely unfair and concerning, it just goes up and we don’t see any benefits from the increased price.

“It’s just one example of housing association landlords doing whatever they can to avoid their legal responsibilities to tenants. They are so arrogant.”

Tenants in the block have been fighting against the housing association this year, over what they say are substandard living conditions across every floor. The entire building has been encased in scaffolding for six years, for example, blocking light into the property.

Natasha Dyett who lives in Archway Heights, paying for tree surgeons when there are no trees

According to figures from Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC), housing associations own 4.4 million homes across England, and collect £1.5billion in service charges each year.

SHAC has started a campaign, calling for an end to “financial abuse” caused by service charges.

Suzanne Muna, a representative for SHAC, said: “The skyrocketing costs we are hearing about in Islington are part of a widespread practice of systemic service charge abuse.

“Landlords are increasingly exploiting the absence of regulation when it comes to service charges to create an additional income stream, passing huge bills on to tenants and residents who have very little power to challenge the lack of transparency or the number of inaccuracies.”

Sheridan Kates, a Green councillor for Tufnell Park, lives in a building in Highbury owned by Notting Hill Genesis (NHG). She told the Tribune how communal service charges for residents in her block had “doubled” without warning or explanation. A two-bedroom flat now incurs service charges of £350 a month.

After investigating, residents discovered that a communal electricity metre was running upwards of £80,000 per year. They found that that only 4 per cent of this was proven to be legitimate use.

After they became concerned about the sudden increase in service charges they challenged NHG to account for the rise, but are still fighting to understand the maths behind the price-hike.

Cllr Kates said: “We’ve had five years of no audited accounts, and about three years ago there was a huge electricity bill which saw massive rises in our service charge bills.

Suzanne Muna of SHAC

“Every year’s service charge bill is in a completely different format, and NHG just pays outrageously large bills without questioning them, and then leaves us to deal with the investigation and fallout.

“It’s like talking to a brick wall with them. I feel they’ve just expanded into some kind of behemoth. It is impossible to get an answer.

“At a minimum, housing associations need to be treated like public bodies, with the same amount of accountability.”

Ms Muna added that systems to challenge housing associations are “woeful”, and that surging service charges were usually for “sub-standard or non-existent” amenities.

SHAC is petitioning for a change in the law to strengthen tenants’ rights and introduce more “stringent” requirements for landlords to be “accurate” with their service charges.

An NHG spokesperson said: “We recognise that service charges have increased for these residents over the last few years, and that this puts additional pressure on our residents at a time when household costs remain high. This reflects a wider trend of increasing service charges due to inflationary pressures, including higher insurance and energy costs. Residents are only charged for the cost of services provided, and NHG does not make a profit from service charges.

“We have written to the residents each year setting out their estimated charges and have met these residents several times over the past two years to talk through the increases and answer questions.

“We also recognise that delays in providing residents with their actual service charge accounts are unacceptable. We are sorry for the uncertainty and frustration this has caused. We are making significant changes to our service charge processes and financial controls to improve the accuracy and timeliness of the information residents receive.”

The Tribune contacted Places For people but did not receive a response by the time we went to print.