RESIDENTS of a tower block are petitioning their MP to rescue them from a housing association they say is ‘not fit for purpose.’ 

Residents of Foundry Court are petitioning MP Tan Dhesi to intervene in their two-year battle with housing association A2 Dominion. 

Residents there have complained that the housing association has charged them thousands of pounds for ‘improvement works’, but has only provided vague details of what the money will actually be spent on.

 One resident, Antony Quarrell, 41, said: “In Spring 2016 we received a demand from A2 Dominion for £1,638 for ‘major works’, with no other explanation.

“It came as a complete bolt from the blue as it was the first we’d heard of it.” 

“We asked A2 Dominion for an explanation of what the money had been used for. Months of calls and emails followed before we were finally given a breakdown of the bill. 

“A2 Dominion seem thoroughly clueless – they don’t seem to know what they are billing us for themselves. They claimed a large chunk of the 2016 major works bill was for the painting of external balconies but this hasn’t been done. Then this year, they backtracked and said it was for internal works, but of course they didn’t reduce the bill.”

More recently, homeowners have been handed a bill for £366 for a new CCTV system for the building, which again residents complain they were not informed about. Meanwhile, problems with the bin store access and the flat front doors, which have prevented waste and mail services from being able to service the building, have yet to be resolved. 

Mr Quarrell said: “Living in a place like this you expect some works will need to be done, but A2 doesn’t even deliver on the basics, while charging us the earth for things they haven’t done or that we have no use for.”

Steve Michaux, Director of Residential Services at A2Dominion Group, said: “We understand the concerns people have which is why we work hard to be as transparent as possible and consult residents before undertaking any ‘major’ or ‘cyclical’ works.

 “In this case, we sent a notice to each resident setting out the full scope of the works that were to take place but didn’t receive any feedback. We have also provided a detailed summary of expenditure for the 2014/15 financial year, which set out the costs for the building incurred in that year, including the cyclical works costs. 

“Each year we produce an annual residents magazine dedicated to explaining how service charges are calculated and our teams closely monitor any complaints/queries people have relating to these costs. We have not received any relating to this case.”