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Tag: service charges

Tenants’ Association News – July 2017

Come to our July meeting to discuss all these topics and more –   Fire Safety In the wake of the Grenfell disaster we will be discussing what this terrible tragedy means for us. We don’t live in tower blocks, so should we be concerned about fire safety? How good are Hyde’s Fire Risk Assessments?     Grenfell residents were ignored when they raised concerns. Isn’t it time social housing residents were listened to?     Kennington Park Community Centre – KPCC Oval  Our Community Centre is now OUR community centre. As a result of our campaign to stop it being closed and demolished, from this month the TRA is jointly managing it alongside Hyde. We are responsible for bookings and the day-to-day running of the Centre while Hyde will continue to maintain it and deal with financial matters.   Joan Twelves and Jahanara Rajkoomar We have signed a Licence which…

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Service charges from 1 April 2017 – important update

As a direct result of the Tenants Association’s complaints, Hyde is sending out revised rent and service charge bills to residents of Kennington Park Estate.   Not only did Hyde include charges for a non-existent service (CCTV monitoring – see item below) but, for the second year running, they failed to include any charges for caretaking. We had to point this out to them. We don’t know what effect these two very large mistakes will have on our individual bills but we are sure we are not alone in wanting to have something approaching accuracy in what we have to pay for the coming year. We have pressed Hyde to ensure all consequential changes to Direct Debits and Housing Benefit are properly and quickly processed. We still have many questions about the actual and estimated service charges and Hyde acknowledges that there is much still to be resolved. Residents will…

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Rents and service charges from 1 April 2017

Hyde is currently sending out notifications of our rents and service charges for the coming financial year. The Government has instructed Housing Associations like Hyde to reduce rents by 1% (roughly £1 per week) but there is no such restriction on service charges. The charges we have to pay from 1 April are estimates and we advise everyone to look at the figures very closely. Check them against last year’s bill if you still have it. Hyde should have sent out statements of how much was actually spent on services during 2015-16 before Christmas; these figures are meant to form the basis of the estimates for the coming year. These statements are now several months overdue. The Tenants Association has made it clear that we find this unacceptable, particularly since we submitted comments on the invoices for the Estate at the beginning of November. The contract to monitor the CCTV…

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Our Rents for 2016-17

  UPDATE 14 April 2016 – KPE RESIDENTS – MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR SERVICE CHARGE, RENT AND DIRECT DEBIT NOTIFICATIONS CAREFULLY. WE HAVE FOUND A NUMBER OF ERRORS! Contact your TA reps (see contact details in the right-hand column) if you need help in understanding these bills.  ****************************************************   Tenants will have received a notice from our landlord, Hyde, this week notifying us of the amount of rent due from 4 April 2016. The TA considers this notice misleading, to say the least, as it gives the impression that tenants will have to pay less than we currently pay. This is very unlikely to be the case because we pay service charges on top of our rents. Last year some residents saw their service charges nearly double and the TA has no expectation that they won’t be increased again this coming year. Indeed, most residents have already been informed (in the…

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Newsletter July 2015 – next TA meeting 15 July

Kennington Park Estate Tenants’ Association News JULY 2015 ******************************************* Join us at the next KPETA meeting at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 15 July 2015 at the Kennington Park Estate Community Centre Come at 6.30 pm for refreshments and chat. TA officers will be there to discuss individual problems/issues  The agenda for this meeting and the minutes of the last meeting are here   ******************************************* Are you experiencing damp, condensation or mould growth? If your flat is affected by damp, condensation and/or mould, do come to the TA meeting on 15 July and tell us about it.  We want to assess the extent of the problem so we can discuss possible remedies with our housing managers.  If you’re not attending the TA meeting, you can email your information about damp, condensation and mould to kpetamail@gmail.com. The TA is seeking technical advice and information in order to gain some understanding of the causes…

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News and Information from the Tenants Association – March 2015

Those Service Charges   Our rents and service charges are going up from 6 April. As we warned in our last newsletter and at the Tenants Association meeting, Hyde’s service charge increases are outrageous. Residents in some blocks are being asked to pay double! Particularly outrageous are the continuing irrational charges we are being levied for communal electricity (the external and staircase lights), which the TA has been complaining about for over three years now, and new charges for fire safety and legionella (a waterborne disease which can spread from communal water tanks) which have been introduced without any consultation or explanation. And the standard of the cleaning and gardening work carried out on the Estate most certainly does not justify any increase. A number of residents have complained to us about the service charges and it is important that you voice those complaints to Hyde at customerservices@hyde-housing.co.uk or by writing…

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News and Information from the Tenants Association – February 2015

Introduction of warden controlled parking enforcement arrangements As agreed at the last meeting of the TA in November 2014, a formal complaint was submitted to HSH/Hyde on behalf of KPETA about the lack of parking enforcement arrangements on the Estate after more than two years. The TA received a full response from the Hyde London Region Director in which he conceded: ‘I agree that the time taken to review Hyde’s parking policy and complete a successful consultation process has been unreasonably lengthy. In planning this project and considering the extraordinary levels of resident engagement which have been allowed for officers should have been clear on project timescales and cut off dates for key decisions in order that a successful enforcement programme could have been put in place that balanced involvement and progress. In light of this we have decided, as an offer of good will, to provide something of benefit to…

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Service Charges – Again….

At the Tenant’s Association, we’ve been looking at service charges once again – specifically, the invoices for work carried out between April and September 2012. And once again, we’re raising question. Areas we are particularly concerned about are: The high cost of CCTV. Communal electricity bills. Controlled door entry repairs. What we discover will affect all of our rent and service charge bills next April. The good news! Our work last year (see February’s post on Service Charges) resulted in residents in several blocks having reduced rent and service charge bills this year – which, with everything else going up, is good news. If we can maintain and improve the services we receive from Hyde and its contractors and reduce the amount we have to pay for them at the same time, then we’ll be very pleased. If you have queries about service charges, especially if you’ve spotted anything on your bill that…

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