A South London tenant locked in a decade-long battle with his landlord says his service charges double ‘without any reason as to why’.
Wimbledon resident Waqar Basit has been withholding his service charge payments for over 10 years, arguing that his landlord’s ‘whole reasoning is just wrong.’
Clarion Housing has insisted in response that it’s performing its duties by maintaining the estate and is not out to make a profit, while also claiming that it has addressed Waqar’s concerns and strives to deliver the best value for money for its tenants.
Service charges are a payment made by a leaseholder or tenant to a landlord for the services and maintenance of a building. Yet, according to Clarion Housing tenants, these payments haven’t resulted in better repairs.
In some cases, residents complained of seeing these bills double without any justification as to why. Waqar is one such resident who claims to have experienced ‘shock bills’.
Waqar has lived at Moffat Court in Wimbledon for the last twenty years. However, for the past ten years, he has been locked in a dispute with Clarion, the UK’s biggest housing association and landlord for most of the court’s 62 flats.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that his bills had consistently risen while living there, but that his continued payment of them had not resulted in any meaningful changes on the estate. Eventually, following years of requests for further information justification of the charges, Waqar began to withhold his service charges.
He told the LDRS: “Every year, I have been questioning the charges, and they have not provided me with evidence.
“There is never any justification, their whole reasoning is just wrong.”
Waqar was first taken to court by Clarion in 2015 over the non-payment of service charges, but this action faltered when they failed to provide evidence justifying the charges.
Waqar said: “When Clarion couldn’t provide evidence for why they were charging them, they just threw out the case, and all the charges were waived.
“However, because I had made some payments, Clarion waived the balance instead of paying the year’s charges. Then I told them you can’t just waive the balance, you need to waive the full charges and refund the amount.
“They did that with some, but where I had argued for some refunds in 2013 and 2012, they didn’t refund me, which amounted to £355. Altogether, it was about £1000.
“They didn’t acknowledge it, and every year, they kept billing me as if my account was zero instead of in credit. Eventually, one of the staff sent me an email saying my balance was £1700, estimated to be over £2000.
“So, they said they’d waive the £1700, but I said you need to waive the actual amount, not the estimate. That got them in hot water, and they said they’d refund it, but they haven’t yet refunded it.”
Waqar has documented the allegedly poor state of repair and cleaning around the estate. In one instance, he told the LDRS how he photographed a mark he had made in the dusty windows, which was still there a month later, despite his sending it to Clarion.
During a visit to the court earlier this year, the LDRS noticed outdoor lights that were on even during the day. According to Waqar, these lights remain unfixed and continue to waste electricity that is ultimately billed back to residents.
While some repairs have been completed on the estate, Waqar and other residents insist that bills continue to rise and continue to lack further detail as to why. He told the LDRS: “We get bills and there are things added in which we’ve never had with the word cost next to it.
“We are not told why these services are needed in the first place when they haven’t been provided for years before. It’s just wrong.”
What has Clarion said in response?
A Clarion spokesperson said: “Like all social landlords, we levy service charges to cover the costs of maintaining a building and communal spaces. These charges are levied to cover costs, not to make a profit.
“We work to ensure services that are charged for present the best value for money for our residents. In some instances, the actual costs of works that are completed exceed what we estimated they would cost.
“We are currently reviewing service charge variances in Merton in order to be able to provide assurance to residents. We will engage with residents on the outcome of this work.
“We have contacted the office of Paul Kohler MP to offer a meeting to discuss service charges in his constituency.
“All credit due to Mr Basit was applied to his customer account at the time his complaint was resolved. We have spoken with Mr Basit, and responded to his enquiries as and when he has raised them with us.”
What’s happening in Parliament?
These rising charges have drawn the attention of Wimbledon’s new Lib Dem MP, Paul Kohler, who noted that Merton leaseholders have been hit with a 48% increase between the estimated and final service charge bills issued by Clarion Housing Association in 2023/24.
The data, obtained by Merton’s Liberal Democrats, shows that, on average, residents were handed a bill £269 higher than the original estimate. In some cases, such as on the High Path Estate in Wimbledon, the difference was even more dramatic, with a whole £1,237 between the initial estimate and the final charge.
The figures have raised alarm among local residents, with at least one tenant facing a final bill more than £500 above their estimate in 24 of Merton’s 34 estates. Elsewhere, the report found that 43% of residents who have complained about their service charges are still waiting for a resolution.
Kohler raised this issue with the Minister for Housing and Planning in Parliament last week. He called for the Government to grant the Housing Ombudsman the power to investigate leaseholders’ complaints and demand compensation from landlords for what he described as unfair service charges.
Currently, leaseholders can only challenge service charges through the costly and complex First-Tier Tribunal process. In response, the Minister acknowledged the concerns and confirmed that the Government is looking to provide more protection for leaseholders facing unaffordable increases.
Following the Government’s response, he told the LDRS: “Leaseholders deserve transparency and fairness, not shock bills. Landlords must urgently improve their processes to provide estimates that are accurate and reliable.
“I’m relieved that the Minister shared my deep concerns about the pressure caused by rising variable service charges. The Government must now act to empower the Ombudsman so that residents have a proper route to hold landlords to account for these irresponsible practices.”
