Pitcairn House residents in service charge strike over living conditions

Pitcairn House. Image: Google

Frustrated residents have refused to pay full service charges to Hackney Council until the authority fixes the “deplorable” state of their housing block.

Thirty-two inhabitants of the nine-storey Pitcairn House in St Thomas’ Square have written to the Town Hall to say they will be collectively withholding 50 per cent of their maintenance fees until “grave and urgent” repairs are made.

Residents said the building was blighted by ongoing leaks and mould in communal areas and individual flats, stuck windows, fly-tipping and “filth”, alongside a scourge of ants, rats, mice and cockroaches.

They have given the council until the end of June to complete the works.

They criticised the “neglect and decades of underinvestment” in their block, and accused the landlord of “flagrant breaches of its responsibility”.

They also gave a litany of other changes needed to uphold the building’s fire safety and to ensure dwellers get adequate heating and hot water.

The group was backed by the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) after “repeated and protracted attempts to engage with the council failed to get repairs done”.

Suzanne Muna, SHAC’s secretary and co-founder, said: “It is scandalous to see the managed decline of council housing estates even after the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, and the spotlight it shone on catastrophic disrepairs.

“It is an extreme action and a last resort, but appears to be the only way to force landlords to address service charge abuse, disrepairs, or antisocial behaviour.”

Speaking to the Citizen, Hackney’s Independent Socialist group said they had heard about the building’s “extensive problems” over several years.

“Residents are at the end of their tether waiting for a proper solution to the problems in the block, despite numerous promises of action from the council, dating back to the previous mayor,” the councillors said.

“We understand why residents in this building and elsewhere are now desperate and have gone to SHAC and other housing action groups to try to force a solution through collective action.”

Rachel Nkiessu-Guifo, a Hackney Green Party activist, told the Citizen: “It’s indefensible that Hackney Council continues to demand high service charges while failing to fix broken lifts, tackle infestations, or carry out urgent repairs.

“This isn’t an isolated case. Too many tenants across Hackney are being let down or ignored.

She added that the social housing ombudsman already found “serious failings” by the council, with the watchdog’s entire report yet to be heard.

“Once the full findings are released, we’ll be pushing hard for accountability and seriously improved standards of the council housing service and leadership.”

Kain Roach, operations director at Hackney’s property services department, said: “We are fully aware how frustrating ongoing problems can be for residents and we apologise to anyone who is affected.

“As we have previously informed residents at Pitcairn House, we are doing all we can to resolve the issues they are facing and have an action plan to deliver this,” he said.

“We don’t want our residents to put up with the issues the residents at Pitcairn are facing, but as we have said before, sadly some of the issues will take time to resolve.

“Like every other local authority we face unprecedented pressures on our Housing Revenue Account due to years of national underinvestment and the increasing costs of maintaining and repairing our aging homes.”

Mr Roach acknowledged that any increase to service charges would be unpopular, and argued that the council did everything in its power to keep costs down and to be transparent with leaseholders.

But he added that money collected through rents and service charges was the only source of funding to repair and enhance homes and communal areas.

“We are always happy to discuss concerns on service charges with leaseholders”, he said, but “withholding the service charge is in breach of the leaseholder terms and conditions, and we would always encourage leaseholders to pay the required amount”.

“However, we will review all charges being made in respect of the repairs and maintenance at Pitcairn, confirm with residents the necessary works have been undertaken or are as accurately estimated as possible, and review the leaseholders’ contributions.”