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 Mary Pimm, SHAC member and Victoria Park Community Association Chair In November 2024, the Mayor of London initiated a consultation about devising a Key Worker Living Rent (KWLR) plan. It ended early in the spring last year. The Deputy Mayor for Housing, Tom Copley, has recently reported on its findings to those who, like… Continue reading London Rents A Blow to Key Workers
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 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
By Michael Savell, SHAC Committee Member It appears that anyone who rents a flat, or was unfortunate enough to have bought a share of a flat through shared ownership, has the same issues. High and unregulated service charges being one of the major complaints that SHAC and other campaign groups receive. What is not generally… Continue reading Invisible Tenants, Forgotten Victims
