Sunday 27 April 2014

NOW, A CHALLENGE FROM RIVERSIDE LEASEHOLDERS


Malcolm Craik, a committee member 
of Carlisle Leaseholder  Group
today issues this group press release:


Leaseholders challenge Riverside’s 

court action over

fire safety upgrade works

and service charges


Carlisle Leaseholders who have been challenging Riverside Carlisle Housing Association`s insistence that it has a right to complete works inside their properties and to replace front and storeroom doors within communal areas at considerable cost to them will be hoping for a ruling in their favour from His Honour Judge Peter Hughes QC at Carlisle County Court on Tuesday April 29th at 10.00 am.

Riverside Carlisle Housing Association has chosen to take a number of leaseholders to the County Court claiming that they are in breach of their leases in refusing to accept that Riverside may enter their homes to conduct internal work and to fit doors.  

Leaseholders understand that it is against the terms of their leases for Riverside to demand access to their properties to carry out internal work and they are also contesting Riverside’s claim that it can charge them for replacing doors that have historically not been maintained by the landlord in accordance with the terms of their leases.

Riverside has refused to negotiate with the Carlisle Leaseholder Group, which was set up in 2010, to challenge Riverside’s demands that leaseholders contribute the full cost of upgrades required at Riverside’s leasehold properties in Carlisle.

Riverside was served with an enforcement notice, following a fire at Melbourne Road in Carlisle in 2009, which highlighted the association’s failure to comply with fire safety regulations since 2005. As a result Riverside commissioned an independent survey of the communal areas at its leasehold property and it is some of the recommendations of that report that have been questioned.

Rather than negotiate Riverside has chosen to isolate individual leaseholders and has now taken legal action against those leaseholders who have stood their ground over the last three years.

Leaseholders are ineligible for legal aid because they are deemed to be homeowners even though their properties are of low value and are difficult, if not impossible, to sell because of the current situation with Riverside.

In the case to be heard on Tuesday Riverside is seeking to force Mr Malcolm Fraser Craik to agree to their demands, and despite the fact that Mr Craik is a joint leaseholder with his 92 year old father, Mr M C Craik, he alone has been summoned to Court.

Mr Craik senior is far from the vulnerable person described by Riverside and he will be attending Court on Tuesday morning to participate in the proceedings.

Carlisle Councillor William Whalen is supporting several leaseholders who have been summoned to the County Court and he has written to the Leaseholder Advisory Service, which has offered to hold a meeting for Riverside leaseholders in Carlisle on 31 May 2014.

This meeting will be held to advise them on the terms and conditions of their leases and what actions in the courts and tribunals can be taken by them to best challenge Riverside over all aspects of the disputes they have with the landlord.

Councillor Whalen is most concerned at the behaviour and tactics of the association towards those members of society who are in an extremely weak position when having to defend them-selves against a large well financed charity like Riverside.

The unpleasant culture within the Riverside organisation is well known and is an extremely disturbing development within social housing in Carlisle he says. Rory Stewart MP has been kept fully informed of developments and continues to be very supportive of leaseholders who have been affected  by Riverside`s actions.

Contact details:

Malcolm Craik M.A., 27, St. Martin’s Drive, Brampton, Cumbria, CA8 1TQ Tel: 0169773182

Councillor William Whelan, 32, Brook Street, Carlisle, CA1 2HY Tel: 01228 490668

April 27 2014

Monday 21 April 2014

WHITEHALL GETS THE MESSAGE



RIVERSIDE`S


FREEZING TENANTS

ASK PICKLES

TO TURN ON 

THE HEAT


Riverside`s freezing tenants have now sent  an urgent message to Cabinet minister Eric Pickles (above). At their latest meeting, the tenants decided to ask him to undertake an urgent investigation into the solar panel fiasco which for the past two years has left them with unheated homes.

Twenty of the Longtown(Cumbria) tenants agreed a resolution deploring the failure of Riverside Housing Association to  end the continued distress of about sixty tenants who cannot afford to turn on their faulty central heating systems- part of the solar panel installations-because  they are astronomically too expensive to use.

The resolution, seeking an urgent investigation  into Riverside`s alleged incompetence and  alleged failure of duty of care, is being sent to Mr Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary who is the  minister responsible for housing.

The meeting heard one tenant after another speak of their struggles to cope with  the rocketing energy bills.

Criticism of Riverside was stepped up when the meeting heard that the situation had now got worse. The number of tenants affected is  now actually  going up by the day because  homes containing the faulty installations, which were empty previously are now being let.

New tenants in these homes are also experiencing the same rocketing heating  bills, putting them also into debt.

The two councils-Carlisle and Cumbria- were also criticised.”For two years we have been complaining about the heating and the big bills but the two councils have done nothing to help” said one of the tenants.”We have been forced to go to Mr Pickles.

“Hopefully,  he will get something done.”


Community Voice Carlisle is the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents`Federation. Information about the Federation is available on the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2013.

Sunday 13 April 2014

HOMELESS CHARITY SHELTER IS ASKED TO HELP



PRESS NOTICE

RIVERSIDE`S FREEZING

TENANTS

STEP UP PROTESTS

The Longtown (Cumbria) tenants deprived of proper central heating are to meet again  this week to step up their protest campaign.

The tenants have been without proper heating for two years. The  planned  meeting is in Longtown Community Centre on Thursday (April 17) at 7 pm. and follows previous protests following a Riverside Housing Association scheme to install solar panels in 175 homes.

The  scheme went wrong when boilers linked to the panels failed in an estimated sixty homes.  The tenants` power bills, which were expected to be reduced by the panels, did in fact start to rocket, going up by as much as 400 per cent.

None of the tenants can afford such bills and they  have gone without  proper heating for two years. Many tenants do not use parts of their homes and  eat and sleep in the same room.

Since the last meeting a month ago, the tenants have  sought help at a meeting with Carlisle City Council Housing Services and have been in touch about the problems with Cumbria Council Council Trading Standards Department and the national charity, Shelter. Mr Rory Stewart, M.P. for Penrith and the Border  is supporting the tenants.

One of the leaders of the tenants` protest said today:”After two years of freezing homes we are tired of complaining to Riverside because it gets  us nowhere. Riverside`s offer of compensation just isn`t happening .

"Their work to insulate  the homes which they say will solve the problem is in fact worthless because insulation will not cure the faulty boilers.”

Thursday`s meeting is being organised by Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

Community Voice Carlisle is the blog  of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. .Information about the Federation is contained in the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2013

Friday 4 April 2014

CLIPBOARDS AND CLIPBOARDS....PROMISES AND PROMISES...


EVERY MONTH, ONE 

WEEK`S PENSION

GOES ON ELECTRICITY


When Riverside Housing Association decided to replace the open fire and storage heaters at my home in Longtown near Carlisle, I was offered no alternative, nor any say in the matter. All I was told was the starting day for the work.

That is how one of Riverside`s distressed tenants starts a letter to this blog. He is one of the estimated  50 victims of the Riverside solar panels` fiasco.

 His letter goes on...

As a means of promoting the new system I was told that it worked on Economy 10  tariff, a rate that is about 30 per cent of the normal rate and that the solar panels Riverside had fitted would provide an income when excess power  generated was fed into the national grid.

When the work was finished, I tried to switch to Economy 10 and was told that only one company had this tariff which was not available to new customers and was being phased out anyway.

As a result, the new system costs far more to run than before, being on premium rate electricity at all times and that any rebate on the solar power goes to Riverside. The last time I did a detailed check with heat and water operating, I was spending nearly one week`s pension every month on electricity,

Apart from the actual unit cost of electricity, the system itself appears to be unsuitable for domestic use. The boiler seems  to be far too big  for one small house and the air pump fitted to the outside of the house has a huge fan powered by electricity that seems to do nothing but cost money and make a lot of noise.

According to the manual on the air pump (left by the installers) the unit should be on its own concrete base and should be sited so that the noise does not affect the neighbours. Instead it is fixed directly to the wall of the house causing vibration when running at full speed and the noise wakens me at any time between 2 am and 4 am.

All of this, including general unreliability has been reported to Riverside and results in someone with the compulsory clipboard coming round. Each person makes the same notes and promises to send someone with more expertise- someone I have yet to meet.

None of this comes a as a surprise to me. It fits in with Riverside`s way of making the company look good in the eyes of the media and the eyes of non-tenants of Riverside
whose rent payments keep the company in business.

Community Voice Carlisle is  the blog of Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation. Information about the Federation is contained in the first post of this blog, dated March 25 2013.