Service charges refusenik digs in over Clarion Housing’s ‘unreasoned hikes’

By Harrison Galliven, Local Democracy Service

A tenant locked in a decade-long battle with his landlord says his service charges double ‘without any reason as to why’.

Wimbledon resident Waqar Basit has been withholding his service charge payments for over 10 years, arguing that his landlord’s ‘whole reasoning is just wrong.’

Clarion Housing has insisted in response that it’s performing its duties by maintaining the estate and is not out to make a profit, while also claiming that it has addressed Waqar’s concerns and strives to deliver the best value for money for its tenants.

Waqar has lived at Moffat Court in Wimbledon for the last 20 years. However, for the past ten, he has been locked in a dispute with Clarion, the UK’s biggest housing association and landlord for most of the court’s 62 flats.

He said: “Every year, I have been questioning the charges, and they have not provided me with evidence. There is never any justification [for the rises]. Their whole reasoning is just wrong.”

Waqar was first taken to court by Clarion in 2015 over the non-payment of service charges, but this action faltered when they failed to provide evidence justifying the charges.

Waqar said: “When Clarion couldn’t provide evidence for why they were charging them, they just threw out the case, and all the charges were waived.

“However, because I had made some payments, Clarion waived the balance instead of paying the year’s charges. Then I told them you can’t just waive the balance, you need to waive the full charges and refund the amount.

“They did that with some, but where I had argued for some refunds in 2013 and 2012, they didn’t refund me, which amounted to £355. Altogether, it was about £1000.

“They didn’t acknowledge it, and every year, they kept billing me as if my account was zero instead of in credit.”

Mr Basit has documented the allegedly poor state of repair and cleaning around the estate.

While some repairs have been completed on the estate, Waqar and other residents insist that bills continue to rise and continue to lack further detail as to why. He said: “We get bills and there are things added in which we’ve never had with the word cost next to it.

“We are not told why these services are needed in the first place when they haven’t been provided for years before. It’s just wrong.”

A Clarion spokesman said: “Like all social landlords, we levy service charges to cover the costs of maintaining a building and communal spaces. These charges are levied to cover costs, not to make a profit.

“We work to ensure services that are charged for present the best value for money for our residents. In some instances, the actual costs of works that are completed exceed what we estimated they would cost.

“We are currently reviewing service charge variances in Merton in order to be able to provide assurance to residents. We will engage with residents on the outcome of this work.

“All credit due to Mr Basit was applied to his customer account at the time his complaint was resolved. We have spoken with Mr Basit, and responded to his enquiries as and when he has raised them with us.”

These rising charges have drawn the attention of Wimbledon’s new Lib Dem MP, Paul Kohler, who noted that Merton leaseholders have been hit with a 48 per cent increase between the estimated and final service charge bills issued by Clarion Housing Association in 2023/24.

Mr Kohler raised this issue in Parliament last week. He called for the Government to grant the Housing Ombudsman the power to investigate leaseholders’ complaints and demand compensation from landlords for what he described as unfair service charges.

He said: “Leaseholders deserve transparency and fairness, not shock bills. Landlords must urgently improve their processes to provide estimates that are accurate and reliable.”

Pictured top: Waqar Basit outside Moffat Court (Picture: LDRS/Harrison Galliven)