A COMMUNITY claim they’re being held for ransom after the service charge on their flats TRIPLED to £7,000 a year because the building was a fire risk.
Residents at Earls Court, near Kensington, London, were living in fear after being told the cladding on their homes was dodgy and highly flammable.
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Just a few miles from famous Grenfell, where 72 people were killed when it became engulfed, remediation works swiftly got underway.
Households were initially told they would not need to fund any of the improvements carried out.
But a letter posted on March 11 told locals the building’s insurance premium had been upped from £10k to £310,000 and would be debited automatically between them.
Dad-of-three Hamid Elouahabi lives in the tower – operated by Notting Hill Genesis – and said he thought the increase of £7,370.22 was a type at first.
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It means the primary school sports teacher is forking out an extra £411 a month for the shared ownership flat.
He told the Metro: “There are some people in the building where it could affect what they can eat on a weekly basis.
“This is money I could be investing in my children – I look at it like it’s money being taken from them.
“It took me a while to get over Grenfell… So to have it all spun up again is not healthy for my soul or my mind.”
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MP Felicity Buchan has called for the charges to be probed as a matter of “urgency”.
The hefty jump in service charge is on top of locals’ rent or mortgage payments and relates to maintenance costs.
Notting Hill Genesis said they were shocked at the whopping increase – that was sourced by a freeholder – but had to implement it.
They have however absorbed the price for 44 social housing tenants.
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A Notting Hill Genesis spokesperson said: “We appreciate that this is a significant increase in the service charge and understand the challenges it presents leaseholders.
“The news came as a shock to us and because we knew it would impact leaseholders, we wrote to them in advance of their service charge statements to explain the situation.
“Notting Hill Genesis does not own the building, did not construct it and is not responsible for its insurance.
“We are a not-for-profit housing provider who acquired the head lease when the estate opened in 2000. Some of the inhabitants have acquired their properties under shared ownership and are responsible for paying the service charges.
“We administer the service charges, which includes insurance premiums passed on at cost and sourced by insurance brokers who search the market for the most cost-effective and appropriate policy.
“We are providing what support we can, including payment plans and access to our partners who can provide a range of support services.
“The building has to comply with fire safety regulations, which meant investigations had to be carried out into the external wall.
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“These statutory investigations revealed issues that require remediation work and, by extension, have led to the material increase in insurance premiums. Interim measures have been instigated to mitigate these issues and ensure resident safety – initially a 24-hour patrol and now temporary fire alarms.
“These measures and the cladding remediation work will be fully funded and not recharged to leaseholders.”
