A residents of an over-55s independent living complex has hit out an 'exorbitant' rise in prices. Onward Homes, who run Woods Court in Broad Street, Middleton, have raised prices by more than £50 a week for residents.
John Bosley, 69, has been living in Woods Court for nearly nine years and has hit out at these 'unbelievable' rises that are due to come into force at the start of next month. The rent itself has not gone up by a lot, but the service charges have, which John believes are not 'value for money'.
This is due to a number of factors, including poor maintenance, which includes damp and mould in some communal areas of the buildings. Onward say service charges have had to increase due to higher energy costs, and that they are not making a profit from this.
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In real term this has meant John's weekly costs have gone up from £132.43 in 2022 to £187.45 from April. "There was a gathering where they said 'by the way you're costs are going up £50 a week. It was disgusting to hear," John told the Manchester Evening News.
"Everyone was saying to each other it's terrible but all the staff in the building could offer us was a phone number to a financial team at Onward. The building manager wasn't even aware of the letter (about cost rises) it seemed.
"The building is in disrepair, there's mould and damp in some parts of the buildings. What are we getting for this massive increase apart from being screwed?
"I do shopping with one of my neighbours who's 93 to help her out. I asked her the other day if she wanted to go over to Tesco to do a shop but she said she didn't want to because she didn't have any money now. This is the impact, getting people of that age really worried about their money. It's completely exorbitant.
"The older people here and their families have got enough to worry about, let alone a £200 rent increase. Some have dementia. It feels like they are being taken advantage of, where's the compassion? We've not had anyone come and give a proper explanation to us as to why they are doing this
"For the money I really don't understand what we'll be getting from this. It gets increased every year but nothing changes."
A spokesperson for Onward said: “Some of our customers pay an annual service charge, in addition to rents, to cover services in their building such as cleaning, scheme managers and communal energy. Residents living in Woods Court will see an increase in their service charges from April.
"The increase is because over the past year energy costs have risen significantly. Onward has subsidised these costs until now, meaning that customers have not had to pay higher bills over the winter.
"Unfortunately, we cannot afford to do this indefinitely, so the higher cost of energy will be reflected in service charges. Onward makes no profit from this increase in charges, rather we are covering the costs we are now paying for energy.
"We take cases of damp and mould very seriously and would encourage residents to report this to us straightaway. Our repairs team inspected the scheme yesterday and spotted dampness on an external wall caused by issues with the guttering, which will be fixed next week. We also inspected the communal areas and can confirm that there is no dampness, but a stain from an earlier leak which had been repaired.
"We have contacted customers facing high charge increases in advance to explain the changes and understand if additional support is needed. Our promise remains in place that no one will lose their home as a result of hardship where they are working with us to make payments and we would ask any residents that are concerned about the changes to get in touch."
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