Apartment owners say they have been told they can expect to foot a £2.2million bill for a backlog of maintenance and repair work to their rundown properties. The leaseholders of the 144 flats on the Canterbury Gardens estate in Eccles pay £186 a month in service charge but claim the property management company Onward Homes has failed to invest their money in routine fixes for years.
They complain of unpainted outer walls, neglected window sills, entrance ways and front doors which have mismatched letterboxes. Canopies, window boxes and fencing are left with flaking paint, they say, and they claim trees in the back gardens are being ‘mismanaged’, leading to subsidence in nearby flats.
The residents of Knights Court, Squires Court and Reeves Court have been issued with Section 20 notices which stipulate leaseholders must be consulted over the work. A cost analysis issued to the leaseholders amounts to £2.2m of work needed to bring the properties up to scratch, say the residents.
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Many of the flats at Canterbury Gardens are occupied by tenants, while others are lease owners. Jacqui Theaker, 60, and her partner Kevin Armes, 47, are among 16 households from the estate who met with the Local Democracy Reporting Service to air their grievances.
“Onward appears to have free reign to dismiss us and treat us as a money tree, while they decide on shoddy maintenance and repair standards, delayed responses, break promises and show no appetite to run the scheme in an efficient cost-effective manner,” she said. She also claims Onward was ‘picking and choosing’ if and when it responds to official complaints.
“Delays [in maintenance work] has cost us, as we are now facing the consequences of hyper-inflation when the work should have been done four or five years ago.” The residents say there is £500,000 in their ‘sinking fund’ which is supposed to be used for cyclical painting, internally and externally, but this is way behind schedule.
They say they are not allowed to store bikes in ‘common areas’ because of the fire risk. Items left in communal areas are ‘confiscated’ and leaseholders are charged £40 per item to get them back, they say. The residents say Onward cites fire regulations, post-Grenfell, for this.
William Dixon, 28, told the MEN: "We want to know, why has it been allowed to get to this state?"
Henry Lloyd and wife Sonia, aged 79 and 77 respectively, said they had calculated that if the residents of the flats are all paying £186 per month in management fees from the Canterbury Gardens residents, Onward Homes was in receipt of £321,000 a year.
"The question is," said Henry. "What have they been doing with that money? They have told us they have been having to comply with fire regulations after the Grenfell tragedy, but look at the state of that store room."
Alan Baillie, 66, said: "We don't feel we're getting value for money, I recall reporting a crack in the wall four years ago, and four years later, nothing has been done."
One resident, who did not wish to be named told how the sale of his apartment fell through after the prospective buyer's solicitor found out about the Section 20 order and the possible £2.2m obligation on leaseholders to foot the bill.
An Onward Homes spokesperson said: “Residents have previously made us aware of some issues relating to Canterbury Gardens and we have been working with them to resolve any questions.
“We take any feedback from customers seriously and will always listen and do what we can to make things right. We are currently working on a programme of works to enhance the appearance of Canterbury Gardens including improvements to windows and doors, as well as painting and fire safety work.
"A formal consultation process has been undertaken with customers and we anticipate the works will be completed in the summer. We are unable to allow bikes to be stored in common areas due to the fire safety risk this presents to all residents. Customers have also asked us to review our pets policy and we are currently doing so.”
On the subject of the £2.2m costing, the spokesperson said: “We are continuing to work with residents at Canterbury Gardens to deliver a series of improvements to the building over the next five years. Leaseholders have been provided with indicative costs for the five-year improvement programme and at the start of this year received a Section 20 notice for the first year of this work. This did not include final costs.
“A formal consultation process has been undertaken and we will discuss any implications on the sinking fund with residents as soon as this information is available.
“In relation to the costs quoted below in the past we have provided various cost breakdown options for leaseholders for the programme of works. One of these options included a £500,000 cost for provisional sums, which include things like unforeseen works, but this has not yet been confirmed.”
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