Needless repairs by council ‘bankrupting homeowners’

A LABOUR-RUN council has been accused of “bankrupting” homeowners and potentially making some homeless after demanding they foot part of a £1.1 million repair bill.

Twenty-five leaseholders, including nurses, midwives, teachers, social workers and the elderly, living at a Hammersmith and Fulham council block are being asked to pay between £17,500 and £21,500 each for replacement windows – which an independent surveyor has said are not needed.

Some residents at Verulam House say the bill is equivalent to their annual salaries and will mean they end up defaulting on mortgage payments.

The council is the freeholder of the 1970’s block of flats, where 25 of the 59 properties have been sold under the right-to-buy scheme. In 2022, the council wrote to leaseholders saying they were installing scaffolding to remove cladding to meet fire regulations, a cost paid for by the Government. They also revealed they had decided to replace uPVC windows installed 26-years ago because they were nearing “end of life”.

But, the leaseholders obtained an independent surveyor’s review which found many windows were “generally in satisfactory/good condition and in our opinion do not require replacement”. In some cases, the repair bill for minor wear and tear could cost as little as £500 to £1,000 with the windows having a remaining lifespan of 10-15 years, the surveyor wrote.

In response, the council insisted that it would be “a false economy … to omit properties we consider are now reaching the end of their serviceable life”.

Diego Bertoni, the chairman of the Tenants and Residents Association, said: “The charges are higher than the net salary of some key workers who live here. It could force them out of their homes.”

A council spokesman said the works were part of a wider refurbishment programme of its homes. An independent expert reviewed the costs to ensure it was good value for money, he added.