Housing association leaseholders in east London estate go on service charge strike

According to SHAC, residents querying the charges were told that they were due to unexpected costs and that the charges are still based on estimates.

Two residents have had complaints upheld by the Housing Ombudsman, but SHAC has said the association has not complied with the watchdog’s instructions.

Residents have now decided to withhold payments, with around 30 residents of the estate now on partial service charge strike. They are withholding one third of their 2023 increase and all balancing charges.

A further five households are withholding their 2021-22 balancing charge. They say they will continue doing so until they are satisfied that all costs being passed on are reasonable and justified.

A spokesperson for One Housing said: “We are aware of and fully appreciate the residents’ concerns at One Stratford following increases in service charges.

“Unfortunately, the current levels of inflation are having a major impact on the costs we pass on to residents by way of service charges.”

The housing association said it had support available for leaseholders including help accessing funding, benefits and budgeting advice.

The spokesperson said that One Housing is the landlord, not the freeholder, for homes in three blocks at One Stratford, with management and maintenance for all blocks carried out by Haus Block Management. Haus sets the service charges for both their own customers and One Housing’s and provides One Housing with predicted spends for each flat at the start of the year, which One Housing then passes on to residents.

Some of these charges are estimates, they said, which will be reviewed against actual costs once accounts are reconciled at the end of the year and when One Housing receives this information from Haus.

“We understand there is some confusion around differences in charges of homes overseen by One Housing and Haus on behalf of the freeholder. The two sets of service charges are not comparable as our service charge years differ (Haus’ run in the calendar year, ours the financial year), meaning that prices shown reflect costs at different points in the year.

“In addition, service charges are specific to each block, meaning that if more costs are incurred for maintaining a One Housing block than a Haus managed block, then our residents would pay more, and vice versa.

“We are committed to continuing to work with Haus to ensure that we do all we can to keep costs down for our customers, and this year we capped rent increases significantly below inflation for shared owners and tenants. However we also have a duty to provide certain services to maintain the standard of our customers’ homes.”

One Housing said it had not issued any debt recovery letters to residents in relation to this issue.

A spokesperson for Haus told Inside Housing: “Haus issued a demand to One Housing Group [OHG], which issues demands to their residents. The financial year for the whole One Stratford site runs from 1 January, when we issue demands, but the service charge period for OHG runs from 1 April. This means that demands and balancing charges issued by Haus and OHG may not be identical as they cover different periods, but can still be accurate.

“Each of the buildings at One Stratford will have separate service charge schedules. Comparing the service charges and balancing charges for similar-sized flats in different buildings is not like for like. Some blocks have relatively more lifts, fire safety systems and running costs than others.”