Housing association tenants in Thornbury have expressed their anger after being told they will be expected to pay extra maintenance charges on top of a rent increase in 2012.
A communication by landlords Merlin Housing Society informing them that they will have pay an extra £1.68 per week to cover the cost of mowing the lawn outside their homes from April next year stunned the tenants in Buckingham Parade. The letter also said the sum could go up by £3 per week each April for the foreseeable future. This will be on top of a rent increase each year.
Merlin Housing took over from South Gloucestershire Council as landlord of the homes almost five years ago and say the Thornbury tenants are being treated just the same as their other tenants who will also shortly be informed of similar service charge changes. In April 2011 a 5% rent inflation surcharge was imposed on residents by Merlin who own thousands of properties, all protected by landlord insurance.
Pete Mainstone has been living in Buckingham Parade for two decades and ended up paying an extra £8 per week since April’s increase. He now pays £82 per week for his two-bedroom flat.
Mr Mainstone said: “We are all pensioners and we can’t afford the new charges on top of the rent increase. Our grassed areas are cut by us, the tenants. The contractors for Merlin do a messy job and leave grass everywhere. Merlin is trying to get money out of us for something that they don’t need to do. We have a petition going for Buckingham Parade and we are refusing en bloc to pay the maintenance charges. They should not be allowed to put the rent up. But we have had to accept it. It is the maintenance we refuse to pay.”
Merlin Housing Society’s view is that there are certain communal services that they provide and they charge around 4,000 residents for them. Due to the transfer promises the council made to all residents when they took over in 2007, they have been unable to impose increases of more than the rate of inflation for almost five years. This has meant that the real cost of providing the service is currently £1.8million a year less than is being paid by the residents.