Leaseholder - Hounslow Homes

for and what I am paying for. My opportunitycame when a leaseholder’s open meeting was tobe held at the Treaty Centre. I duly went alongand asked a question about ‘actuals’, this led meto yet another mystery, a ‘block repair summary’.After 3 years of attending more openmeetings and still being unable to understandservice charge billing charges (despite failedcommunication with the Call Centre and thelack of response from the Accounts departmentat Hounslow Homes Ownership Unit) and manyunanswered communications other tactics wererequired. I summoned up courage and putmyself forward to join the Leaseholders Forum.These meetings were a revelation. TheHounslow Homes officer members of LeaseholdForum were very approachable, accommodatingand often unaware of the issues leaseholderswere raising. Now 6 years on and moreleaseholders on the Forum I feel that our voicesare finally being heard. To back up my thoughtson service charges (and other leasehold forummembers) I conducted a mini questionnaire ofleaseholders where I live. The findings were asfollows:• 27 Questionnaires given out 11 returned =41%• 81% disagreed that service charge billingwas easy to understand• 63% did not understand the term ‘actuals’• 72% did not know what they were beingcharged for• 36% were not aware of the term ‘BlockRepair Summary’• 63% were unhappy with the exterior paintwork done Feb‘11• 63% did not know that this paintwork hada 5 year guaranteeI took these findings to the Forum. Theywere not pleased or happy with the results ofthe questionnaire. Diana, a leaseholder Boardmember, and I were asked if we would like towork with HOU to see what could be done.After having phone calls and 2 face to facediscussions with Roz Spencer of HOU andsubsequently many e-mail interchanges I cannow say that some changes to the service chargebilling are afoot.It has been a long hard slog getting satisfactionfrom Hounslow Homes, but all I would say isthat if you want Hounslow Homes to get a GRIPof your GRIPE, don’t give up, be determined anddon’t accept ‘No’ as an answer.Jenny Samuel 29 January 2013WE’RE MAKING IT SIMPLERThe ChallengeYou criticised us for not explaining your servicecharges clearly. We have taken this message onboard and are making changes which we hopewill simplify the process, not only to make it easierto understand but also save on time, paper andpostage. This article explains the legal servicecharge billing process requirements and how thenew, simpler process will work. But because sadly,the law just isn’t “simples”, we have standardisedthe terms we use as far as possible and usedfootnotes to provide a list of key definitionsas a companion to this and other articles anddocuments on service charges, at the end.