I don't know how many of you are in flats that have a company manage general repairs and upkeep but I was hoping some of you had some advice on how we can sort some things out with them.
I'll try to make this as short as possible.
We pay about £140/month which is a lot at the best of times.
That covers insurance, external repairs, structural repairs, grounds upkeep and insurance.
We have always paid this on time and suddenly they took 2 payments of £160 from us instead of £140. When I queried this with them they said it was because our account was slightly in arrears. I disputed this and they said their accounts department would email me to clarify. That was about 6 months ago and I have contacted them another 4 times about it and been ignored.
We have had damp issues since we moved in and the water is coming from the outside. After faffing about with them for a few months they sent a guy over who confirmed this. He said that he would relay this to the management company and because it was an external issue, repairs would be done from the outside and they wouldn't need our input. Management company emailed us a while later to say that the repairs were approved and they would organise someone to come and do them.
Nothing happens for a few more months so we get in touch again. No reply for weeks. Another email and I get an auto reply saying the person handling this has left and someone else has taken over their job and would see the email. Its a new person so I write a new email explaining everything from the start and I haven't heard back yet. Since the management company agreed to the repairs its been nearly three months and complete silence.
We have had to run the heating and a dehumidifier almost constantly in that time to dry the place out and avoid huge amounts of mould growing in the flat. A pair of curtains have been ruined as a result of the damp and we are redecorating as well due to mould.
What can we do to A) get them to actually sort this out finally and B) recover some of the costs of the extra electricity and the damaged curtains/redecorating?
They are largely useless and I am getting to the point of just withholding payment to them.
I'll try to make this as short as possible.
We pay about £140/month which is a lot at the best of times.
That covers insurance, external repairs, structural repairs, grounds upkeep and insurance.
We have always paid this on time and suddenly they took 2 payments of £160 from us instead of £140. When I queried this with them they said it was because our account was slightly in arrears. I disputed this and they said their accounts department would email me to clarify. That was about 6 months ago and I have contacted them another 4 times about it and been ignored.
We have had damp issues since we moved in and the water is coming from the outside. After faffing about with them for a few months they sent a guy over who confirmed this. He said that he would relay this to the management company and because it was an external issue, repairs would be done from the outside and they wouldn't need our input. Management company emailed us a while later to say that the repairs were approved and they would organise someone to come and do them.
Nothing happens for a few more months so we get in touch again. No reply for weeks. Another email and I get an auto reply saying the person handling this has left and someone else has taken over their job and would see the email. Its a new person so I write a new email explaining everything from the start and I haven't heard back yet. Since the management company agreed to the repairs its been nearly three months and complete silence.
We have had to run the heating and a dehumidifier almost constantly in that time to dry the place out and avoid huge amounts of mould growing in the flat. A pair of curtains have been ruined as a result of the damp and we are redecorating as well due to mould.
What can we do to A) get them to actually sort this out finally and B) recover some of the costs of the extra electricity and the damaged curtains/redecorating?
They are largely useless and I am getting to the point of just withholding payment to them.
