What would you do if your management company suddenly demanded up to £2,000 for heating, but refused to show you how the bill was calculated? This is the reality facing around 300 households at West Works in Southall. What started as confusion has become something far more serious. It is now a months-long battle over… Continue reading The £300,000 Black Hole: FirstPort’s Mystery Heating Bills
How Landlords are Siphoning Millions in Unearned Service Charges from the Welfare State A new investigation by SHAC reveals a systemic failure in the Housing Benefit system, allowing landlords to overcharge the taxpayer by millions of pounds while the government looks the other way. Download the report: Service Charges & Housing Benefit report It is… Continue reading The Great Housing Benefit Heist
Missing information and the service charge maze: how one email built a residents’ association By SHAC member David Woodrow Our residents’ association was born from an accident. In August 2024, our building manager at Peabody emailed every resident about window cleaning — and accidentally used CC instead of BCC. What followed was a week of… Continue reading Missing Information and the Service Charge Maze
By Rachel I have lived in my home for over 24 years. It is the only home I have known as an adult. I raised my son there, invested my own money and labour into maintaining it, and built my healthcare, support network, and community around it. Today, I am facing possession proceedings and homelessness… Continue reading Ombudsman’s Severe Maladministration Finding Leads to Eviction Not Protection
New research carried out by SHAC shows that across all the cases of service charges challenged at the First Tier Property Tribunal (FTT), more than 63% of landlords were found to be overcharging for services. This figure rises to more than 66% for housing association landlords. The overcharges in many of the cases were replicated… Continue reading SHAC Research Finds Overcharging in More Than 63% of Tribunal Cases
By Jess Owen A major Social Landlord has claimed that housing associations are not bound by some provisions of the 2010 Equality Act. Peabody Trust, which operates over 100,000 Social Homes and “provide care and support services to around 25,000” people in England, claims that, as they are not listed in a schedule of the… Continue reading Housing Associations and The Equality Act 2010
By Michael Savell Nothing less than total reform will cure the problems with housing. For the last several years I have been involved with SHAC as its Treasurer, and have occasionally contributed to the various Whatsapp groups answering questions and commentating on the problems that tenants and leaseholders have with their landlords. It is very… Continue reading Nothing Less Than Total Reform
By Ella Austen It’s a truth universally acknowledged that arrogance and idiocy frequently travel together. “Empty vessels make the most noise” says Shakespeare in Henry V. And while Plus Dane Housing, a housing association primarily operating in the North West, may not share the Bard’s grandeur, it certainly compensates in how flagrantly they display this… Continue reading Beware the Brainless Inquisition
More than 100 activists gathered in person and online on the 11th October to plan a national tenants and residents (housing) union. The event was organised by SHAC as the basis for forming an independent action group that can transform the vision into reality. Attendees included those leading local action on their estates, regional groups… Continue reading Conference Agrees to Build a Housing Union
By Ella Austen The paperwork that ties me to Plus Dane Housing was written in 1989. I was a barely sentient one year old. My name isn’t on it. Plus Dane’s name isn’t on it. Yet somehow, this paperwork legally binds me to pay them money every month for services that aren't delivered. I bought… Continue reading Plus Dane Charging Thousands for Services We Never See
